His Cat
by ShadowCatRose
Summary: Everybody knows the story of the famous Earl Phantomhive and his butler. But, they left a few characters out. What happens when the Phantomhive Manor acquires a few unusual guests? And what skeletons are they hiding in their closet? I do not own Kuroshitsuji characters, just my own! Sebastian x OC, slight Ciel x OC
1. His Cat, First Meeting

Chapter 1: His Cat, First Meeting

The weather outside was a delightful sight. I could see the gentle breeze ruffling the spring leaves on the trees. A small flock of birds practically danced overhead in that never-ending blue sky, and the sun seemed to cast its light on the world with a cheerful grin.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't seem to brighten the young Mistress's spirits this morning. As usual, she was as focused and calculating as an assassin. _I wish My Lady would stop to enjoy life for once. She's too serious sometimes, for a girl her age._

Still, at the tender age of twelve, My Lady looked as elegant and as innocent as ever. She appeared to be bored, her deep brown eyes lazily looking out the window as she placed her cheek upon her hand and rested her elbow on the windowsill of the carriage.

Today she was dressed in an outfit fit for an occasion such as this: a simple dress, fit for a school girl. The white collared top of the shirt changed to a smoother black fabric under her virtually flat chest and hugged her childish frame nicely, until it splayed out at her hips and stretched to her knees before ending in very fine white lace. Her black neck bow was starting to come loose, and it was bothering me to the point of madness.

She fidgeted for a second, switching her crossed legs from right over left to left over right before she settled down again, making her leather boots clink noisily against the floor. She brushed the bangs of her short, bobbed black hair out of her eyes, nearly knocking loose the red rose clip above her left ear. _My poor Lady, she's so clumsy today. It's obvious she is nervous about this meeting._

"My Lady, your neck bow must be fixed once again. Shall I tend to it?"

"You may tend to it, once you fix that stray lock of hair in your face. Your bow is crooked, too. I will not have my maid looking less than perfect in front of the Earl."

"Yes, My Lady."

Ah, as observant as ever. I glanced over at one of the mirrors hanging on the wall of the carriage with my trademark crimson eyes and tucked the single strand of cyan blue hair out of my face and adjusted the large black bow on the back of my head. Now, black wasn't supposed to be my color, with such doll-like porcelain skin, but I couldn't help it if Japanese Lolita caught my fancy in this world. Elegantly dressed in one of my many black Lolita knee-length dresses lined with white lace, I did indeed look like a doll. I fixed one of the stray white laces that crisscrossed from my hips all the way up to the neckline on the front of the dress. Apparently, I was also out of sorts today.

I checked my black stockings and boots to make sure they hadn't messed up as well before I turned my attention to my Mistress. I fixed her neck bow before I straightened her rose clip. Ah, so much better. It was important for her to make a good first impression on the Earl. Due to the "circumstances" we found ourselves in, My Lady had to put on a good façade for society to make an excuse for our trip to England. Practically every major businessman in the country knew what we were doing here: the last member of my Mistress's esteemed family, her grandmother, Akira Saito, had passed on only two months before. So, My Lady needed a "tutor" of sorts.

Now, what better instruct her to teach her all about business than none other than the Earl Phantomhive himself? The young man was the same age as my Mistress, and already he had made his family name proud with his success at such a young age. As one of the Saito family's business partners, and the son of the family's old friend, he was more than eager to send a letter to accept our offer. We'd stay in the Phantomhive Manor for six months, while she apprenticed under him.

For our "behind the scenes" activity, that story will be for a later time.

"We have arrived, My Lady." The carriage was already making a slow stop as it pulled up in front of the luxurious Phantomhive Manor. A smile passed over my features as I glanced at the small group of people waiting to welcome us to their humble home from my window view.

One of the people standing in the front was easy to recognize. The mature-looking young man, dressed elegantly all in green, with short navy-blue hair and blue eyes, was obviously the Earl himself. His right eye was covered by a black eye patch. _A boy so young, needing an eye patch…?_

The quartet behind him consisted of a gruff blonde man, a doe-eyed blonde boy, a carrot-topped woman with enormously large glasses, and a very tiny old man. But, they didn't catch my interest very much. They were obviously just servants. It was the tall gentleman standing next to the Earl that caught my eye.

Unlike the other servants, he was dressed just as lavishly as the Earl in his black trousers, vest, and tailcoat, with the Phantomhive crest on his shirt cuffs and tie, a silver lapel attached to his coat, and a pocket watch hiding in one of his pockets. His dark hair framed his angular face quite nicely, and the crimson cat-like eyes standing out against his pale skin I spotted made me do a double-take. _This little adventure just got much more interesting. _I quickly hid my Cheshire cat grin and waited for the coachman to open the door to the carriage. My Lady stood and stepped out before I followed suit, both of us aided by the coachman.

The Earl greeted the young Mistress with a warm smile; one I felt wasn't exactly true. "Welcome to the Phantomhive Manor, Lady Saito."

"It's such a pleasure to see you again, Earl Phantomhive. How long has it been? Five, six years at the most?"

"I presume so."

"Well, I have to thank you, first off, for offering us your hospitality and tutoring. I believe your father would be proud to see the young man you have become."

"You are very welcome. It's an honor to aid an old family friend. May I present to you the head of my staff here at the manor, Sebastian Michaelis. He will be giving you a tour of the manor shortly."

The tall gentleman at his side crossed his arm over his chest and bowed formally. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Saito."

"Likewise. I'm afraid the entourage I brought with me is not as large as yours. I only brought with me my head maid, Sakura Yukimura."

At a glance from my Mistress, I daintily grabbed the skirt of my dress with my lacy-gloved hands and curtsied to our gracious hosts. "The beauty of your manor is beyond words, Earl Phantomhive." I stood up straight again and locked eyes with Mr. Michaelis, as I was standing directly across from him. I could see the knowing look he had in those crimson eyes of his. I myself am very sure I had a similar look on my own face.

"Well, shall we head in, then? My servants will take your belongings up to your quarters." The young Earl turned around and was followed by the tall butler, who gave the other four a look right before they scurried towards the carriage to get our things. I let My Lady follow them first before I trailed behind her, snapping my fingers lightly.

"Come on, then, Shadow. You can't nap in the carriage all day."

Instantly, a black bundle of fur zoomed right out of the horse-drawn carriage and trotted alongside my feet, her tiny mouth stretching open with a silent yawn.

"Honestly, you must not sleep all day like that, my dear. It's not good for your health, and you miss all of the exciting things." Her lamp-like scarlet eyes glanced up at me before returning her gaze to the inside of the house, inspecting it curiously.

As we stood in the foyer of the manor, The Earl spun around to face us. "I have some work to complete in my office, so Sebastian shall show you around."

The young man made his exit while our tour guide made another bow. "Now, if you would please…" He suddenly froze as his eyes made contact with the domestic animal at my side. "Is that…a cat…?" His eyes seemed to sparkle at the sight of the silky black-furred creature at my side.

"Oh, yes, that would be Shadow, Sakura's pet. Have no worries about her. She's fully house-trained and hypo-allergenic. I did hear about the young Earl's allergy to cats. I wouldn't have let her bring the feline along if she wasn't. If there is a problem with her presence, I can order her to sleep outside or something else to accommodate any issues."

Sebastian stood up straight and gave us a smile. "That won't be necessary unless the Earl requests it. I shall speak with him on the matter before dinner. Now, shall we begin the tour? I am sure after your long trip, you would like to have your evening meal and get a good, long rest."

My Lady nodded to him, and he trekked through the halls of the manor, pointing out every room in the house. My Lady had only to worry about the important rooms, but pointing them all out was for my benefit. As My Lady's maid, it would be shameful for me to be a guest in this house and not pitch in around the manor. I was more than happy to work in this manor as if it was my own. If I couldn't do that for My Lady, what kind of Saito maid would I be?

As we walked and Sebastian explained the history of the house, I let half of my mind wander into deep thought while the other listened to Sebastian intently. _If this butler is indeed a Demon like me, obviously the Earl is the one he is under contract with. That fact is fairly transparent. I'm curious as to what the contract is for…_

…..

Later in the evening, My Lady and I found ourselves in the extravagant dining room of the Phantomhive Manor, the Mistress enjoying a lovely dinner prepared by Sebastian and the other servants. As per the usual, I was standing behind her and to the left of her chair while she ate, my feline friend sitting at my feet. Sebastian seemed to be doing the same, standing behind the Earl while he ate.

The two were discussing plans for My Lady's lesson, but I was watching Sebastian with amusement. His attention seemed to be caught by Shadow, who had cocked her head to the side cutely and was staring at him, her tail swishing calmly back and forth. My cat normally behaved well in front of anyone, but she wasn't affectionate towards anyone that wasn't, well, like me. Demons seemed to be her favorite playmates.

She was obviously waiting for permission to go hog his attention and play with him, like she always did. I pride myself in my well-behaved cat. But, I would not allow her to behave as such in front of the Earl unless Sebastian was given permission to break away from his silent vigil to satisfy his "cat fetish".

Eventually, the poor man couldn't take it anymore, and he glanced over at the young Earl, who had noticed his behavior. He pressed the fingers of his right hand to his forehead, his gold signet ring sparkling in the light, and sighed heavily. "Go ahead, then, Sebastian."

"Yes, My Lord."

A smirk crossed my features as I lightly nudged the cat with my boot. Giving me a look of delight before she departed, she scampered over to Sebastian, sat down right at his feet, and meowed cutely. Sebastian practically cooed over the silly thing as he scratched between her ears, causing her to purr in happiness.

"Well, it seems your butler has a fascination for animals of the feline variety, Earl Ciel."

"Indeed he does. Sometimes it gets to be quite the annoyance. As I was saying, Lady Amaya, I do have a busy schedule, as you well know, but Sebastian will handle scheduling times for our lessons, so you will have free time to enjoy your stay in England. Going to the landmarks around town is a must before you leave."

"I will take your word on that one. It is quite the pity that you have such a crammed appointment list. Taking a well-deserved break once in a while will do no harm. But, seeing as you have busy work running the Funtom Company as well as your work for Her Majesty, I can see why your attention has been grabbed. I do hope our lessons won't become a hassle to your schedule."

"Not at all. It's the least I can do for a family friend. I would have gone to the funeral, but I had my own business to attend to, God rest your grandmother's soul."

"It was her time. With everything that happened recently, it was a wonder how her old heart could take it. She's in a better place, and she would have understood why you couldn't make it."

"This does seem to be a year for tragedies, doesn't it?"

"Indeed. Besides the recent departure of your dear aunt, Madame Red, God rest her soul, everyone seems to be getting into trouble with our old friend Death."

Now the two were touching a topic that My Lady and I were clearly interested in. A small handful of large business owners had recently had "accidents" and come to an early demise. It wasn't the deaths that were interesting us; it was the man who swooped in and bought up the companies after they lost their leaders, who coincidentally had no heirs to take over their business. My eyes narrowed as I glanced away from the conversation. _He's been making his move here as well…what unlucky businessman will he strike next? We have to catch him before he finishes his plan in England and moves on to another country…_

…..

That evening, I was in My Lady's chambers, helping her to prepare for bed. I had just slipped her white nightgown over her head when she glanced up at me with a serious look. "Do you have the death report on the last man he attacked?"

"It was the owner of the popular horse-trading company, Mr. Noss."

"Wasn't he here just to check on the company he has stationed here? He doesn't even live in England."

"He was also found dead at a house party held by one of his associates. Police report says it appeared to them that he jumped off of the third floor balcony to his death."

"He's getting bolder. He's only killed them while they were alone."

"Well, it's well known that Mr. Noss was very paranoid and kept bodyguards with him wherever he went. Perhaps the challenge of killing this one was too great to pass up this kind of opportunity."

"That is most likely the case. How is he pulling off these difficult murders…? He must have one excellent hit-man for the job."

"It will be nothing that I cannot handle when we find him, My Lady."

"Good. I expect nothing less from you."

"Now, shall we retire for the evening? We've had quite the exciting day, and my intuition is telling me things are going to get even more eventful around here."

"I am quite tired. Good night, Sakura."

"Good night, My Lady." I took the candle from the bedside table as she crawled under the covers and left the room, giving her a smile as I quietly closed the door and headed to my own room for the night, my cat silently at my heels.

"Things are going to get a little crazy around here, Shadow. You'd best be prepared."

Her crimson eyes glanced up at me mischievously, almost as if saying I was really giving HER that warning.

"Just a precaution, sweetie, I don't doubt that you can handle yourself well."

Satisfied, she trotted ahead of me on her delicate paws, her tail held high in a proud manner.

"Oh dear, it seems I've inflated her ego again. What am I to do with you?"


	2. His Cat, a Demon

Chapter 2: His Cat, a Demon

I finished combing my long hair until it looked absolutely perfect. Hair is so hard to manage when it reaches down to your hips, mind you. Anyway, I was just preparing myself to accompany My Lady for her first lesson, which was occurring during afternoon tea. The Earl insisted on having it outside today to enjoy the pleasant weather out in the garden, and My Lady was happy to oblige.

My black bow was tied to the back of my head once again, and then I proceeded into the Mistress's bedroom. She had just finished primping herself and was all set to go. She was even bringing a little notebook to write down notes if she needed them. How adorable. My diligent little Mistress is always a perfect student.

"Are you finished? It is time for us to go."

"Yes, My Lady."

"Where's the cat?"

"Already outside waiting for us. She does get quite impatient."

"That's only because she has a new friend to play with."

"Indeed, young Mistress. Shall we join the Earl in his garden then?"

She gave me a curt nod and led the way while I trailed behind quietly. Shadow was waiting for us right outside the back door, but joined me by my side as soon as we emerged from the manor. Now, the inside of the estate is absolutely gorgeous, but the outside was the real treat for me. I have a thing for flowers. I absolutely adore them. That's one of the reasons My Lady named me after a flower.

Ciel and his butler were already waiting for us in the garden, sitting at a table set for two for afternoon tea. The young Master of the house gave us his pleasant smile and gestured for My Lady to have a seat. "So, shall we begin?"

"Of course. I am eager to get started." She sat, and like a gentleman, he pushed her chair in for her, as was proper etiquette, before he seated himself and waited as Sebastian poured the tea.

"Today for our meal we have an exquisite Earl Grey tea, with homemade blackberry pie for dessert."

Ciel quietly nibbled a bite of the pie. "Delicious as always, Sebastian. Now, on to our lesson…"

The young Lord and My Lady started their chat while I was quite distracted by the elegant scenery. Apparently the gardener was the doe-eyed young lad that was always so cheerful and polite to everyone, Finnian. Despite his unusual behavior, he was indeed an excellent gardener. Everything seemed to be placed just right. I took a breath of the fresh air as I calmed myself. It was quite rare to get a moment of peace around My Lady.

Shadow, on the other hand, was busy scampering about the garden, chasing a butterfly, as cats do. Ever the prudent hunter, she was trying to capture the colorful fluttering creature by swatting at it with her fluffy paws. Sebastian and I both watched the feline as she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Once again, he seemed to be enthralled with the small creature. _That man's love for cats seems to almost border on obsession. It's hilarious._

While she was playing, this enormous white dog came bounding out of the wooded area behind the manor and started barking at my cat, which immediately hissed and ran for it towards me. The glare I gave that mutt most likely could have frozen Hell over in a matter of seconds. _Why is my cat being chased by a dog the size of a commoner house?_

A frown crossed the butler's face, and he glared at the dog. He moved away from the two young ones, who completely ignored the scene as they talked, and swatted the enormous dog on the nose. "Bad Pluto! You shall not chase the cat of our guests. Is that understood?"

The large dog whined and laid down in the grass, his tail between his legs and his head on his paws, giving Sebastian an adorable puppy face, but he didn't fall for it. He pointed back towards the woods, and the dog begrudgingly left, his ears drooped and his head hung low.

He returned to the group and Shadow removed herself from behind my feet to bound up to the butler and rub against his feet, as her way of showing a simple thank you. Sebastian knelt down and pet the cat, cooing over her.

I raised my eyebrow at him. "What in the world was that all about, Mr. Michaelis?"

At the sound of my voice, he stood once again with my cat in his arms. "My apologies, miss. Pluto is still undergoing house training."

_That's not the point. Why and how is he in possession of a demon hound?_

"It's quite all right. He caused no harm, so there's no need to fret over it." _If he touches my cat, he's not going to be a happy mongrel at all._

…..

Our Masters spent about an hour going over their business tactics before they finished their afternoon tea and decided to take a recess to take a walk around the garden. Ciel led the way across the garden with Lady Amaya at his side, while Sebastian and I trailed along behind them, with Shadow resting comfortably on her favorite spot of all time: my shoulder. Even though she's an adult cat, her size was just right for sitting in the crook of my neck. I didn't mind too much, and she got a higher view of the garden.

The two started a casual chat while we stayed silent.

"How do you like London so far, Lady Amaya?"

"It's…different, but I think a change of pace was in order. I plan to take a little tour around town this weekend."

"It's possible I may be able to join you. I do have a few things in town that need to be done."

"That would be wonderful! I do want to get some shopping done myself. Most of my wardrobe doesn't exactly blend in with the local culture except for the few things I brought for the occasion."

"Well, I would highly recommend-"

I tuned the rest of the conversation as the sound of faint and distant footsteps reached my sensitive ears, and then the familiar metallic sound of the favorite weapon of humans being prepared to fire at will. _Ku-so. _Apparently, I heard it before Sebastian did, because he didn't react like I was right now, smoothly moving in front of My Lady and the Earl. I was no surprise to me at all. Being a Demon of the feline nature had its perks.

"Get down!"

"Wha-?"

**BOOM!**

The loud sound of guns being fired rang in my ears as I felt a barrage of bullets, coming from rifles by the feel of it, embedded themselves in my pale skin. I already knew the pain wasn't going to last very long, but those damn human weapons were getting more and more effective every time I ended up getting shot. Their technology does astound me sometimes at the rate it improves.

I landed face down in the grass with the wounds bleeding, but that didn't matter to me. I'd be up again in no time. It's my little charge I had to worry about. I could practically hear the gasps of surprise from the hiding enemies at the fact that they had missed their targets, as I came out of nowhere to shield the Earl and My Lady. That left only a split second for Ciel to react, which of course, he did. It was no surprise to me how level-headed he could be in this situation. He was contracted to a Demon, after all. Most humans in his position see quite a bit of death.

"Sebastian, get them!" The sound of cloth moving caught my attention immediately.

"Yes, My Lord." Light footsteps crunched across the grass and the sound of metal objects clinking together was heard as the butler raced across the yard in the direction of where the shots had come from.

"Bloody bastards!"

My Lady sighed in exasperation. "Sakura, please stop playing your games and get up. Now is no time for lying around."

"My apologies, My Lady." A smirk crossed my face as I pushed myself up onto my knees and then stood before turning around to face the two young ones. The Earl had a mild look of surprise on his face as he watched me miraculously come back to life. He didn't seem very surprised, though. He probably had guessed my true nature by now, the clever boy. This time, he was holding his eye patch in his hand, and the right eye that had been previously covered up revealed to me the location of his Faustian Contract mark, right on his eye.

My Lady rolled her eyes at me. "Good, now we have work to do. Would you mind fetching their leader before the butler kills him? You know what to do with him." She herself loosened her neck bow and sighed yet again; flipping her bobbed hair to reveal her Faustian Contract mark for only a second before her hair covered the nape of her neck on the right side once again.

"I will take care of it immediately, My Lady. That fool has ruined my favorite dress." I slid off both of my gloves by biting the middle finger of the glove with my teeth and sliding them off, revealing my Faustian Contract mark on my left hand, the exact same one as Lady Amaya's. The familiar pentagram surrounded by a circle seemed to be made like the stem of a rose, covered in thorns, with a flower blooming in the middle of the pentagram. The entire mark, except for the flower was black. The centerpiece was actually red.

"May I suggest returning to the manor until we are finished? I shall take care of the clean-up personally."

"Just go, and take the cat with you."

"Yes, My Lady. Shadow, if you would please." I snapped my fingers, and the feline that had jumped from my shoulder when I was shot looked up at me as her form shifted, growing in size until she had become not a cute house cat, but a beast. To make it clear for a human to understand what she looks like, think of a cheetah that's completely black with a classic Satan tail to add a dramatic effect. Oh, how I adore my little Nightmare.

I myself pulled two objects from the hidden pockets in my skirt: a pair of large silver cake knives, intricately carved with curls all over the two inch thick blades before they narrowed down at the tip. The handles were mahogany, beautifully stained with a cherry wood finish.

"This is going to be quite enjoyable. Come, sweetie, it's time to play." I dashed out towards the woods, the large cat at my side.

I couldn't help but chuckle as I heard the Earl whispering to My Lady. "Are those…?"

"Cake knives? Yes. To be more precise, hand-crafted wedding cake knives that belonged to my parents. She took a liking to them, and they were just sitting in a cupboard collecting dust, so I decided to make use of them."

As I entered the woods, already Sebastian had taken out virtually all of them except for their leader. At least ten or twelve bodies were lying on the ground with silverware stuck in vital places that instantly killed them or slashed open, most likely from the butter knives. _Interesting choice of weapon. Too disposable for my taste. Such a waste of good silverware._

Sebastian was just about ready to strike down the leader when he spotted me walking up and stopped, a grin coming across his features. "Did you enjoy your nap, miss? I was just tending to the rodent infestation that has occurred."

"There will be no need for that, Mr. Michaelis. I'll take the king rat myself. I'm very interested in hearing him squeak. Shadow, if you would please." The stupid man was trying to crawl away while we were distracted, but the large muscular animal pounced onto his back and pinned him to the ground, snarling in his ear.

"Good girl. Give me a few minutes and I'll start cleaning up this mess. I have a feeling this one is going to be stubborn." _Oh, how I despise the truly wicked of the human race, willing to do anything for money. It's utterly disgusting._

Sebastian crossed his arm over his chest, now de-gloved and proudly sporting his Faustian Contract. "Take your time, miss. I will begin cleaning up while you exterminate this rat." He strode away while I approached the whimpering human, practically going mad with terror.

"All right, rodent, you better start squeaking before I gut you like a pig. Who sent you?"

"I-I-I won't tell!"

"Hmph. An unwise choice. But, you're making this more fun for me."

…..

After ten minutes, twenty bones broken, and a proper gutting of the turkey and removal of the carcasses, I walked back towards the manor to clean myself up before the ordinary servants caught sight of me. _It was him again, that damned bastard. He obviously knows we're here and he's trying to finish us off. No matter. The more activity he stirs up, the easier it will be for me to catch him. The coward should stop hiding. Though, I can't blame him. A wetting of the trousers is quite shameful for one in such a high position as him._

Cleaning up was quite the hassle. Sebastian took care of most of the mess, but I pitched in and helped him finish the job before I had to return to my quarters, change into another dress, give my hands and hair a good scrubbing to get rid of the human blood, and washed my knives to make sure they stayed in pristine condition.

When all of that work was all done, I went to go find My Lady. Shadow, now back to her usual and less-menacing form, padded along silently by my side. I found them playing a game of chess in the parlor while they were discussing what had just occurred.

"So, you have also become contracted to a Demon?"

"Yes, shortly after my parents had their little accident."

The two glanced up at me as I entered and curtsied before I stood behind My Lady's chair.

"Ah, there you are, Sakura. Did you get the information?"

"Do you doubt my interrogation skills, My Lady?"

"No, I do not. What did you find?"

"As we suspected."

"I see…"

Ciel and Sebastian watched the two of us with interest in our topic of choice. "Do you know why I have hit men scurrying about like vermin in my back yard?"

"It is a matter that is quite…private…a small problem that will soon be dealt with. There is no need to concern yourself with it."

_I believe it is his business if our presence is causing a danger to his own life and his staff, despite the presence of his Demon. _I let a small sigh escape my lips as the two went back to their game of chess. Ciel seemed to be mulling over the situation intently while he focused on the game.

"I still feel the need to apologize for that incident. That appears to be an everyday occurrence for me nowadays. I should have forewarned you of this. Will it be a problem?"

"Not at all. I have my own problems such as this, but Sebastian normally handles them with ease."

"Well, two Demons are better than one."

"I quite agree."

Ciel looked up from the chess game to look at Shadow, who cocked her head to the side at his attentive gaze. "So, what's the story with the cat…?"

"Hence why you're not allergic to her. She's not really a cat. It's just a better disguise for her than her usual appearance. She sort of came with the maid. Those two have some cat-to-cat bond, and she is useful, so I let her keep it around."

Shadow's tail swished in excitement at the praise and purred.

"My Lady, please, you are stroking her ego again."

"She knows her place."

The adorable cat ears flattened themselves and the cat let out a snort. Indeed she did know her place.

Ciel let a smirk cross his face. "So, would it be too personal of me to ask you why you have formed a contract with a Demon?"

"It's not a topic I would like to discuss at the moment, if you please." My Lady is very touchy on the subject. Nobody outside of the family knew the situation, and the information died with Mrs. Saito.

"Ah, I understand…" He managed to get his queen in just the right spot to corner her king. "Checkmate."

"You always were a wizard at chess. I admit defeat." She glanced up from the chess board and sighed. "The day's events have worn me out. If I am needed, you shall find me in the library." She stood to leave and nodded to our host. "If not, I shall see you at dinner, young Earl."

He nodded back to her and she left the room with me obediently trailing behind and my little monster at my heels. We had a bit of studying to do before we made our counterattack.

"This is a good sign, My Lady. He is still in the country. He hasn't fled from the news of our arrival."

"But he's getting dangerously bolder. I want this over with as quickly as possible. I didn't like this idea in the first place, putting the Earl in harm's way with this bastard after us."

"The situation turned out better than we expected."

"Yes, things do change with the information that Ciel is contracted to a Demon. We won't have to worry about his life too much. By the way, if you knew Sebastian was a Demon, why did you protect both of us? Surely Sebastian could have taken care of him."

"Now, what kind of Saito maid would I be if I couldn't protect our gracious host and you at the same time?"

"My dear, you quite enjoy your job very much."

"The lifestyle of a maid is the lifestyle for me, My Lady."


	3. His Cat, in Disguise

Chapter 3: His Cat, in Disguise

"You've got to be **JOKING**." I do believe my Mistress has gone mad.

"I'm completely serious. This is a direct order from me. You dug your own grave when you gave me the information you acquired about our target. The head of his London factory for his company is just as elusive as him, except for spending money to have some 'quality' time with a prostitute three times a week. You're going to have to disguise yourself as one to grab his attention. This weekend, when we do our shopping, we'll buy your costume when the Earl is not accompanying us."

I sighed, but I wasn't allowed to complain to the young lady sitting on her bed.

"Yes, My Lady. As you wish."

…..

I was already regretting this mission as I glowered at myself in the full-length mirror in the Mistress's bedroom. The night to grab our prey had come quickly, and I was quite ready to burn this outfit.

"Mr. Barrett should fall for that disguise easily. All you have to do is strut around on his favorite street to find prostitutes, get the information, kill him, and then get out of there. It should be no problem."

"But, really, My Lady, THIS, of all outfits…?"

"The more provocative, the better. It has to be you he chooses out of all of the prostitutes or else we may not get another shot at this." I sighed and returned my gaze to my reflection. _This is completely scandalous and unfair._

The outfit was very…frilly. Everything was hemmed in some sort of black lace. The quarter-sleeved dress was mostly red with many layers of frilly skirts to add volume to the dress. The top was shoulder-less, and a corset trapped my waist, so my pale breasts were almost popping out of the top. A tight lace choker covered my bare neck, and I was wearing a jet black wig pinned over my own hair, all pulled back into a ponytail tied up with a lace ribbon, the dark curly ringlets resting on my back. The fishnet stockings, lace gloves, and stilettos hidden under the skirt added to the sexy appeal. I wasn't sure how the heavy make-up was very appealing, but humans are indeed strange.

"I look like a Mexican salsa dancer crossed with a medieval tavern wench."

"This is exactly the look I was going for. Both are very sexy."

"I am finishing this mission before a member of the household recognizes me in this scandalous outfit. I wouldn't even dream of letting Shadow seeing me in this." I lifted my skirt and headed out of the room, thankful that the Earl and his staff were asleep at this eleven o' clock hour so I could slip out of the house right out the front door by myself undetected.

Well…mostly undetected.

…..

As I glanced around calmly, pretending I didn't have a care in the world, I kept a sharp lookout for Mr. Barrett's carriage to drive by. He normally made his rounds around midnight to find the prostitute that he was "in the mood for". Tonight, though, would be his last ride.

I was only walking for a total of twenty minutes before I spotted the dark carriage slowly making its way around the corner. The family crest on the side made a clear indication that this was indeed Mr. Barrett's horse-drawn carriage. _The poor lad makes it so easy for me. Well, on to the next step._

The carriage drove slowly down the street, but I still maintained my casual walk, except for adding an extra little swing to my hips to add a girlish and less proper effect, as well as walking crookedly once or twice to add the illusion that I was slightly intoxicated. My efforts seem to do the trick as the carriage slowed to a complete stop right next to me, and I stopped walking and turned to face the carriage in a tipsy fashion.

A face that I recognized as my intended target popped his head out of the carriage door and gave me a slow look-over with a lecherous glint in his eyes. I had to play it up a little, so I gave him the best seductive smile I could. _This is utterly embarrassing. He's not even an attractive human. _The dark hair hidden under his top hat was quite my style, but the full beard and mustache combination, I could do without. His body build and face were much too hardened for my taste as well. His clothes weren't even as elegant as My Lady's or the Earl's wardrobe, considering his point of power and who he was working under. _He spends too much money on his prostitutes and not enough on his clothes._

"What's a lovely lady like you doing on these streets alone at night?" _Flatterer. He sounds like he's already had a bit too much to drink._

"Just looking for a little excitement, sir." I gave him a playful wink, and he gave me the largest grin I've ever seen a human being perform. _Please, somebody just let me vomit._

"Well, well, I could give you a little 'tour' of my manor to 'satisfy' your boredom." He put heavy emphasis on a few of his words, playing along with my little game. _Well, at least I've got his attention and his invitation. Now to grit my teeth and bear with his presence until I get into his office._

"I believe that's a splendid idea."

"That's wonderful. Hop into my carriage, miss, and we'll be off." He held out his overly large hand to me and I took it, walking up the steps and then climbing into the carriage before seating myself right next to him. _Now for the fun part._

…..

The carriage ride was dreadfully boring. All the blasted fool would go on about was bragging about himself, how much money he had, what his position was in the factory, so on and so forth. It was a living nightmare. I'd rather face My Lady on a bad hair day.

Finally, we pulled out in front of his manor. It wasn't as impressive as the Phantomhive Manor, but it was decent enough that the sight of it didn't want to make me gag. I kept playing the tipsy prostitute as I openly flirted with the annoying human as he took my arm and escorted me into his home to show me around.

He really did take me on a tour, which made my job so much easier. He revealed to me every room in the house, including his office which was my main objective, before we moved our tour to the inside of his bedroom.

Mr. Barrett took a moment to brag about his bedroom, which was the most decorated room in the house, while he made himself comfortable, removing his traveling cloak, top hat, and shoes while I pretended to be in awe of his "astounding" wealth.

"Your home is absolutely magnificent, sir. Are those real silk sheets?" I had to get him off-guard, so I hinted towards the real reason why he dragged me here while pretending to be stupid. I already knew they weren't real silk sheets. It was a cheap imitation silk sold to commoners.

"Indeed they are! Feel how soft they are." That lecherous grin came across his face as he took my hand and practically dragged me onto his bed. I hid the smirk that wanted to cross my features as he was already getting distracted by dirty thoughts.

"You look absolutely beautiful, miss." Then he made his move and went in for the kiss, which disgustingly, I willingly participated in. Now that I had his guard completely down, it was time to move in for the kill.

While his lips were busy on my neck, I slid an old rusty kitchen knife I had swiped from his very kitchen from a hidden pocket in my dress and stabbed him right in the back through the heart. Before the pitiful creature even knew what had hit him, he was already dead.

I sighed in relief as I pushed the carcass off of me and fixed my wig, just in case any of the servants saw me while I was trekking to his office. Then, I smirked at the dead body of Mr. Barrett before I left the room. _That one deserved to die. Teme._

My small form slunk through the halls, being as quiet as I could. Every time I spotted one of the servants coming my way, I either hid somewhere nearby where they wouldn't see me or I acted like I belonged there and gave them a cheerful good evening. None of them stopped me at all.

A good five minutes later, I was in his office, searching over his desk for any important documents or letters that could point me to our main target's location. The bastard may have been Mr. Barrett's boss and the owner of his enormous company, steadily growing thanks to the companies he was buying up, but he was very hard to track down. He was always on the move, hiding from the greatest threat to the empire he was building: the Saito family. Every time we found him, he was off again before we reached him. Apparently he wasn't like this until after the incident with My Lady's parents. He clearly knew of my existence and feared me most of all.

But, the object of her vengeance had to die, no matter how tricky the snake was to capture. I had a meal riding on this. I've never met him, but I've seen pictures. He appeared to be like any ordinary human. How was he still managing to flee from us?

My train of thought was lost as I spotted a piece of paper sticking out of a reading book that had hastily been crammed back into a bookshelf, most likely by the terrible staff of his manor. I snatched the book up and opened to the page with the stray paper sticking out of it. He'd obviously been reading this book when he received this letter and set it down in the book when he was finished, and then when a maid cleaned up his desk last, she just left the letter in the book and crammed it onto the bookshelf.

It was a letter, addressed to Mr. Barnett with an address handwritten on the envelope, and our targets' name written as the sender: Marcus Allen. The date when the letter was written was only three days ago, which means Mr. Barnett recently received it.

"We've got you now, you slimy little _teme_."

I froze when I heard the sound of a loud female scream coming from Mr. Barnett's room. _Oh, dear. It seems one of the maids has discovered my mess. I do believe it's time to get this evidence to My Lady and retreat for the time being._ Already the hysterical maid, whoever she was, was screaming murder and yelling at other servants to call the constables immediately. Thunderous footsteps echoed around the house as the house staff moved into action, trying to find the murderer, aka myself.

Unfortunately for me, the office had no windows for me to escape in, so I had to become an actress once again as I slipped out into the hall undetected. It was only a moment later that some servants rounded a corner, and I had to think fast on how to act. Quickly, I pretended like I was in hysterics.

"You've got to help! There was this crazed man that just ran down this hallway towards the front door! Catch him before he escapes!" I pretended to start crying as I screamed at the men and covered my eyes like a pitiful wench. My act seemed to work on them. They ran off towards where I had pointed while I went the opposite direction and into another room of the house. Apparently they were used to their Master's "guests" wandering about the house.

This room was Mr. Barrett's library. There were two very large doors in this room that led out onto balconies, so my escape was eminent. Too bad we were on the third floor. Oh well, if I broke my stilettos, there was no harm done. This whole outfit would be burned and the ashes buried to make sure no evidence would be left for them to find the prostitute that had been in the house when the murder was committed.

I made a run for it to the nearest glass door, threw them open, hopped out onto the balcony, and closed them behind me. I didn't need any evidence of where I'd escaped either. This prostitute was just going to vanish from existence, never to be seen again.

My gloved hands gripped the hand-carved wooden railing and I swung my legs over, releasing it as I free-fell down towards the grass below. But, my feet never touched the ground. A pair of familiar white-gloved hands caught me by the waist when I reached the ground and catching me by utter surprise. Good thing the bangs of my wig covered my eyes and I was wearing heavy make-up. The blush of embarrassment I was sporting would not be a welcome sight in this situation. Who knew he'd been waiting at the bottom to catch me?

"You have a knack for getting yourself into trouble, miss. I suggest taking the stairs next time to prevent an injury."

I brushed the wig hair out of my face and locked eyes with the dark-haired Demon butler. "What are you doing here? N-Never mind, we need to get moving before we're spotted. If you would kindly put me down, Mr. Michaelis, we should be on our way."

He obliged my request and set me down on my own two feet. He started moving back towards the manor on foot with his Demon speed and I followed suit, easily matching his quick gait.

"Did you follow me all the way here?"

"I was doing a few last-minutes chores around the house while everyone else was resting when I heard your conversation with Lady Amaya."

"My assumption was that you were sleeping. I was dreadfully wrong on that one. Then again, sleep is a luxury for us."

"And you were in a businessman's home dressed as a prostitute for what reason, may I ask…?"

"Order from My Lady. I needed information, and I got it. This was apparently the only way to get it." I triumphantly slipped the letter from my pocket and showed him before it was quickly restored. I didn't want him being too nosy about the mission given to me by My Lady.

"You are a truly devoted maid, young miss."

"I can say the same for you, Mr. Michaelis."

…..

When we returned to the manor, all was quiet. I sighed as glanced at one of the mirrors in the foyer, frowning at myself. My ensemble was still in perfect order except for the dress. The giant blood stain on the top and on my breasts was quite an unsightly image to look at. It was no matter. This dress would be burned anyway.

"I can only hope My Lady will **never **order me to wear an outfit this dreadful again."

"Despite the fact it reveals your lovely young curves, I have to agree. An outfit that scandalous doesn't suit you very well." Sebastian's head popped up over my shoulder in the mirror, giving me a Cheshire cat grin. I could only roll my eyes at him as I removed the pins from my hair and yanked the itchy wig off, letting my own long locks loose from their hairy and annoying prison.

"You are quite the flatterer, sir. Ah, so much better. Black is such an elegant color, but it doesn't suit me in the hair department. Now, Mr. Michaelis, if you will excuse me, I have a few matters to attend to, such as getting rid of this hideous thing humans call a garment."

"Have a good evening, Miss Sakura."

"Good night, Mr. Michaelis."

As we both parted ways, my feline friend slunk out of the shadows and gave me an amused look, like she had witnessed our conversation, and my ridiculous outfit.

"Don't give me that look, Shadow. Off to bed with you, dear."

Like a moody teenager, she rolled her eyes and swung up the stairs, swinging her hips in a very pouty fashion, like she just missed the latest gossip going around. I followed her upstairs, shaking my head at her attitude.

"You, Shadow, are indeed one dramatic feline."


	4. His Cat, the Beginning

Chapter 4: His Cat, the Beginning

"Good work, Sakura. You got the address. What does the letter talk about?"

"A meeting they are holding in one of his warehouses to discuss business matters."

"We need to get into that meeting, and I don't think a disguise would work this time. I know how paranoid that bastard is." She was calmly looking at the letter I had retrieved last night as she sat in the garden and sipped at her morning tea. The Earl was having his violin lessons with Sebastian, and the rest of the servants were nowhere to be found. So, it was safe to discuss this topic, for the moment.

"May I suggest eavesdropping on the meeting until it's over, so that we may kill him when he's alone?"

"That may be our only choice in the matter. This is an opportunity I will not let slip through my fingers. He's going to pay for what he's done, that vile snake."

_Just as strong-willed as ever, My Lady. It seems only yesterday you were saying those very same words to me the first time we met._

…..

_The only thing that could be heard was the heavy footsteps of a small group of men, apparently heavily armed by the sounds of guns going off, as well as the shouts of the living and the dying. These men were here to kill and to receive their payment for the job._

"_Where's that damned brat?! She's the last target!"_

"_Let's check in here!"_

_A small sound like whimpering came from a small young lady hiding under the bed in her bedroom as the angry shouts of the assassins entered the next room over. If they popped into her room, she'd most likely be discovered and shot, just like her parents, whom she witnessed murdered in their bed not too long ago when she had a nightmare and went to ask if she could sleep with them for the evening._

_Images like that stay with you forever, especially for one as young as this ten-year-old girl, so innocent, and now so scarred. She couldn't help but cry for her mother and father as she listened to the hit men leave the room next door and head towards her bedroom. She wasn't ready to die, not yet. Not until whoever had done this to her family was punished._

"_Dear child, why do you cry so?"_

_She stopped her pitiful tears and rubbed her eyes, blinking. Surely she had fallen asleep, or worse, she was already dead and just didn't know it. One second, she was in her bedroom, hiding under her bed, and now she seemed to be sitting under a gorgeous cherry blossom tree in full bloom, out in the sunshine when it was supposed to be night. Sitting right in front of her, giving her a questioning look, was a black cat, with a smaller black cat standing next to her._

_Had the cat just spoken to her? But cats don't talk, do they? Her questions were answered when she heard the voice again, coming from the larger cat, though the mouth did not move._

"_Were you raised without manners? I asked you a question, young miss. Why are you crying?"_

_She sniffled and gave the cats a confused look. "How can you ask a question if you aren't supposed to talk?"_

_Laughter rang through the air as the large one gave her an amused look. "I can in this world, dear. Are you going to answer my question now?"_

"_These bloody monsters shot my mother and father, and now they're trying to find me, too."_

"_You have found yourself in quite the predicament, miss. You must be rather lonely."_

"_I don't care anymore. I just want them to go away! I want all of the mean people that are responsible for this, gone!"_

"_Well, I might be able to help you with that…for a price…"_

"_If you can do it, I don't care about the price! I'll give you whatever you want!"_

"_Even if it means your very soul?"_

"_You can have it! They all need to die!"_

"_So, you wish to form a contract with me?" A mischievous glint seemed to sparkle in the big cat's eyes._

"_Yes, as long as you kill all of them!"_

"_Of course, My Lady. I shall be there whenever you call me."_

"_Hah, I found her! She's under here!" The world seemed to snap back to reality as the young girl was dragged out from under her bed by one of the murderers._

"_Yup, that's the Saito kid all right. Let's just finish this job already." One of them was already aiming his rifle at her head to shoot her._

_Despite the situation, the young lady's attitude seemed to have completely changed as she glared up at the man ready to shoot her._

"_Kill them…"_

"_Hunh?"_

"_Kill them all…THAT'S AN ORDER!"_

"_Yes, My Lady." The voice of that cat resounded in the room as a hand suddenly protruded from the chest of the immediate threat on the young lady's life, the one holding the gun to her head. He went down instantly as a tall woman withdrew her hand from his chest and laughed. "Pitiful humans."_

_Panic arose as the sudden appearance of this strange woman spooked them all, but they were left no time to react as she started attacking them and killing them all in various gruesome ways. This monstrous cat also came out of nowhere and dashed into the fray, adding to the gore of the frightening scene._

_She left the boss alive and tortured him right in front of the child to get the name of the person that had hired these mercenaries. Finally, a name was spluttered out before the bastard drew his final breath._

"_It was Allen…Marcus Allen…"_

_The child's face grew angry. "It was him? I want him dead, too."_

_Her new servant glanced over at the child and curtsied in a polite manner. It would have been a more elegant scene if the woman wasn't completely drenched in the blood of all of the hit men she had just struck down in less than five minutes without obtaining a single injury. "It shall be done, My Lady. I am at your command."_

…..

"Oh, what a fun day that was…"

"Did you say something, Sakura?"

"Nothing, nothing at all, My Lady." I pretended to examine my black nails with interest while she put the letter down and sighed at me.

"The meeting is happening tonight. Damn, if only we'd gotten this information sooner…we'll need to make preparations immediately. You might as well inform Sebastian I won't be attending dinner tonight."

"Of course, young Mistress. I shall take care of it immediately."

…..

Late into the evening, My Lady and I found ourselves right outside of the warehouse, with the poor young Mistress cursing in utter irritation.

"How in the bloody hell are we going to eavesdrop when the office is on THE TOP FLOOR?!" _She doesn't know how good she has it, considering what I went through last night. _The large factory had its own office, where the meeting would take place, but the office just so happened to be on the fifth floor of the factory, the very top floor.

"I shall remedy the situation, My Lady. Please, hold on tight."

"What do you mean by-!? Damn it, woman, put me down! Not this again…!" I'd already slung the young Mistress right onto my back, so there was no point in stopping now. I sighed at her in exasperation as I leapt right up into the air, landing on the roof in a single bound. It was the only way up, so My Lady would have to deal with her fear of heights for now.

She was just about ready to curse me out in Japanese when I put a gloved finger to my lips to signal her for quiet. She'd blow our cover if she started having another one of her tantrums.

Thanks to the cracked roof window that we were standing four feet away from, we could hear the entire conversation as clear as a bell.

"Now, gentlemen, shall we get this meeting started?"

Oh, that devious little voice of his. I'd recognize that thick honeyed voice anywhere from all of the recordings of his voice I'd found for information in the past. Marcus Allen was indeed in that room. My Lady seemed to recognize that fact as well, because she immediately grew serious and listened in on the conversation going down below the tiled roof under our feet.

"Cut the crap, Marcus! You know damned well that Barrett was just murdered last night! Don't pretend to be so calm about it!"

"I know full well the situation, Mr. Codsworth, but the show must go on, as they say in the theatre."

"Do you think she was responsible for it? The Saito girl? Everyone here knows full well your enemy is currently in London. Whatever mercenary she's using is very good at what he does." _I enjoy the compliment, Mr. Codsworth, but please, I am a FEMALE. Bloody mortal idiots can't see a woman's handicraft if it slapped them in the face._

"Mr. Codsworth, I am handling the situation as we speak. The topic shall not be discussed further until a later date. Now then, this meeting was supposed to be to discuss our next target, but that can wait for a moment while we decide who is going to take Barrett's place."

They started their boring little speeches about who should replace the bastard I killed while I quietly listened in, slightly bored of this unimportant chatter. This meeting was already less interesting, as they weren't talking about My Lady or the fun murder I performed the night before.

It took them about half an hour to pick the new lackey to serve as the replacement for Mr. Barrett. Then as the greedy humans picked the next businessman to attack so they could buy up the company once everything went downhill for their business without their leader, I busied myself playing with my cherished knives to make sure they were in pristine condition for murdering Mr. Allen. If this was to be the last mission I would perform for My Lady, I wanted everything to be complete perfection. There would be no room for error tonight.

Around the first hour of the new day, the meeting finally concluded, and the men scurried out of their rat hole to return to their carriages so that they may return home. _These sinful little pigs are just begging to be killed, but I have my target tonight. I can have my fun with the rest of these fools whenever I please._

Mr. Allen was the last one to leave the factory. While he made his way towards his carriage, I leapt off of the roof and landed gracefully on my feet. My Lady would wait on the roof top until my "business" with this man was concluded. She'd get a birds-eye view of the whole death scene. What more could she ask for?

I followed him from the shadows, carefully gripping the handles of my knives. His blood was practically singing to me as I prepared to move in for the kill, one I planned to draw out as long as I could, for My Lady's entertainment. Silent as death, I charged right at my opponent, who had his back turned to me. At the last second, he turned around, only to spot me charging right towards him, and I slashed right across his chest with the right hand blade.

My blade never made contact with his skin. Time seemed to stand still in this moment. In the light of one of the porch lights of the factory, I could see him properly. His green eyes were completely fixated on me in complete surprise. Thanks to me spooking him, his top hat came right off of his head, revealing the mop of red hair that was hiding underneath. He was wearing a pair of black trousers, black leather shoes, a dark red dress shirt, and a black coat over that, all of his ensemble looking rather expensive.

The knife had cut cleanly through his coat and shirt, showing off the pale-skinned and well-built chest underneath, with a Faustian Mark showing clearly on his chest. The scary thing was, neither I nor My Lady knew that he was also contracted to a Demon. The mark was so ordinary-looking; I probably would have missed the plain white pentagram and the circle surrounding it if there was no light for me to see it.

So, this was how he'd been eluding us and committing even more daring murders. He had a Demon serving him the whole time, and we didn't even know it.

It also explained how I had not killed him, as the Demon servant in question was standing right behind his Master, gripping the back of his shirt. He'd simply pulled him just far enough that I wouldn't cut his skin. But, it sure gave his Master a fright.

Our new arrival had the complexion of a cloud and an appearance to match. The short snow-white hair nearly blended into his skin, and it perfectly matched his white dress shirt, white vest, white trousers, and white tailcoat. It wasn't traditional for a servant to wear an outfit of all white, but he somehow pulled it off. His snake-like eyes of deep scarlet were staring right back at me with a smirk playing across his lips. He seemed to be enjoying the fact that he caught us off-guard.

"Well, good evening, miss. Do you have an appointment with Mr. Allen? If not, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Enough playing around, James, find her Mistress and kill her!"

"I'm afraid his only opponent today will be **me**, Mr. Allen."

James practically shoved his Master behind him as he charged for me, drawing a pair of meat cleavers from his tailcoat. _Oh, brilliant, this ought to be oodles of fun. _I blocked his attack quickly while Marcus ran for his carriage to escape. I was already two steps ahead of the bastard. I whistled before I evaded James's next slashing attack and I countered with a stab attack.

"Shadow, would you be a dear and cut off his escape?"

On cue, the large cheetah-like feline sprung out of the shadows like a gun from a bullet, tackling the side of the horse-drawn carriage and knocking it over onto its side with the force of her attack. It usually takes at least four men to up-right a carriage, so unless a few more humans joined the fray, our prey was stranded, and he wouldn't get far on foot.

Mr. Allen seemed to get quite pissed at that, for her started running on foot in desperation. I only rolled my eyes. As soon as I dealt with this blasted butler wannabe, I was going to chase him down and make his suffering that much greater for making me deal with this annoying brat of a Demon.

I leaned back to duck another swing from James's cleavers and sneered at him. "With a sin-drenched soul like Marcus's, it's a wonder he settled for such a low-class Demon to contract with." Angered at my swords, he swung at me again with another powerful slashing movement, which I dodged easily. He had quite a bit of power and a little speed, but his accuracy needed improvement. He makes me think of a skinny white gorilla with hardly any hair.

He wasn't making any leeway in our battle. The two of us were apparently evenly matched. Dodging his attacks was easy for someone with my speed. Nevertheless, he would never tire out, and I wouldn't either, so I had to make a move and just end this silly game before I got too bored of his antics. I wasn't landing any hits, and he wasn't either.

"Are you quite finished? I tire of this. Shouldn't you scamper along back to your Master, dog, before I end you?"

"Well, you're no fun. I suppose it is time to withdraw for now. We'll finish this battle later, cat." He glared at me viciously before he backed off and vanished into the shadows to go retrieve his Master.

I was quite irritated at myself for letting our prey escape, but this little rendezvous was not wasted. If we'd attacked and we had no clue that he had a Demon to aid him, things could have ended badly for My Lady. I hate doing things that end up a waste of time, but this was not one of those things.

I leapt back onto the roof while I tucked away my knives and curtsied to my Mistress in a deep apology. "Forgive me, My Lady. Our prey has escaped once again."

"There's no use crying over spilled tea. Let us return to the manor at once. I have to re-think our strategy now that there is a new chess piece on the other side of the board."

"We shall depart immediately, My Lady." I whistled again and Shadow joined me at my side, growling in irritation. Obviously she'd wanted to play with Mr. Allen for a little while longer.

"Come on, then, dear, hop to it. We're not walking all the way home tonight. It is far too late an hour for that." Nodding in agreement, the feline's size changed until she was about the size of a horse.

"Excellent. Let's go home." I gave My Lady a boost right onto the cat's back and I hopped on in front of her. "I suggest holding on to something. You know how fast she likes to go, Mistress."

"Please, don't remind me. Why must you two always insist on going at ludicrous speeds and heights for travel?"

"What else would you expect from a pair of cats, My Lady?"

"You always have to be right..."

"Indeed, My Lady."

With a slight kick of my boot, the monster cat leapt off of the rooftop and elegantly landed on all four paws before she sprinted down the dark streets of London, taking the less crowded routes so we would not be spotted by humans.

My Lady had a long night of planning ahead of her.


	5. His Cat, Stargazing

Chapter 5: His Cat, Stargazing

"My Lady, it is time to get up."

"Leave me alone, Sakura, I was up late…"

"I am well aware, My Lady, but it is already the eleventh hour of the morning."

With a jolt, my sleepy and very bed-head ridden Mistress popped her little head up from her pillow and practically gave me a glare that would send Pluto running with his tail between his legs.

"Now, why in the world did you not wake me up sooner?"

"You looked so peaceful, My Lady, I couldn't help but let you sleep a little while longer."

"The house is unusually quiet…"

Just as she said that, as if to spite her very words, I practically groaned as the sound of an explosion went off in the kitchen.

"What in the devil's name was that?!"

"That, My Lady, would be Bard, once again." I sighed. "Lady Elizabeth Midford, the Earl's fiancée, came to call upon him early this morning for an afternoon picnic. Sebastian accompanied them, so he left me in charge of the other servants until they return. Turn my back for one moment and already he's trying to blow up the kitchen again…"

After the young Mistress was dressed, I called upon Mey-Rin to replace the sheets while My Lady left the room and headed to the dining hall for her very late breakfast. "And, please, put the linens on in the right order this time? Only God knows why you wear those ridiculous glasses. Can't you see better without them, dear?"

Mey-Rin seemed quite embarrassed as she practically dropped the sheet she had in her hand and her round face flushed a bright shade of pink. Any darker and it would have matched her hair. "Oh, no, miss, I couldn't possibly take 'em off! The young Master gave me these!"

"I see…well, carry on, then, but I don't want to have to return to this room and right the sheets if they are incorrectly placed. Again."

"Right away, miss!" She set to work while I hurried into the kitchen. Hopefully Bard hadn't completely destroyed My Lady's breakfast, let alone the entire kitchen. I found the gentleman with his hair in extreme disarray as he frowned at whatever he had been cooking in a large pot.

"Well, there goes the stew…"

"You were making stew? My Lady must have her breakfast. Stew is inappropriate for a morning meal, Bard." I groaned again as I heard a very annoying barking coming from outside and the shrill cry of a young male's voice yelling out the name of a very irritating dog. "Bard, please, just clean this up and start again, with something you can make FAST. I must see what Pluto's done this time."

In minutes, I found myself grimacing at the sight of the enormous dog uprooting a few trees and chewing on them like dog bones. Finnian was yelling hopelessly for Pluto to behave, which wasn't exactly working too well.

"Finnian, did you forget to go take Pluto on his run this morning? He's misbehaving due to pent-up energy." I walked over to the dog and swatted him on the nose, so he immediately dropped his "chew toy" and whined at being punished. Thanks to Finnian's extra gift of super strength, only he, Sebastian, and I were allowed to take the enormous dog for runs. We're the only ones strong enough to hold his leash and not go flying for ten miles when he yanks too hard.

"Oh, dear, I had forgotten to do that this morning! I'll get right on it…!"

"After you clean up his mess and replant new trees, Finnian. There should be some spares in the shed. What would you people do without Sebastian?"

"Bard would blow the house up in less than a week."

"It's a shame that I agree with you on that statement. Get your work done, then." I rubbed my poor aching forehead as I returned to the manor to check on My Lady. _How Sebastian handles these idiots, I have no idea. At least Tanaka doesn't cause trouble. He either does his work right or stays out of everyone else's way. Then again, everyone questions whether Tanaka is indeed human or not from his unusual behavior, switching between Tanaka and Real Tanaka._

…..

After I corrected every shamble that the servants seemed to create, I joined My Lady in the library for a discussion on what we had discovered last night. For reasons I couldn't exactly fathom, she liked my insight on matters concerning our mission. _Makes me almost pity poor Sebastian. Ciel practically bullies the man like a spoiled child._

"I knew I'd be putting the Phantomhive household in quite a bit of danger when we started this…but I didn't understand the depth of how much danger until now."

"My Lady?"

"It's common knowledge that I'm here. If he sends his new little toy after us, I don't want the innocents here caught in the crossfire. We may have to move on and find another place to hide, or at least inform the Earl of the situation so he can decide how he wants to handle it."

"The innocent bystanders won't be in much danger if both Sebastian and I are in the house if this event occurs. Two Demons are better than one. They will be safe. The Earl would never allow a hostile Demon to roam free, especially with so many unknowing humans about."

"But what if he's not here? There are many people here that could get killed. I can't take that risk."

"This brings me to my next reason: the amount of witnesses. His other targets were easy to harm, being as he could kill them in places where there were no witnesses. Here, there will always be too many witnesses for him to risk that. Even at night, both Sebastian and I will be fully awake and ready to deal with the situation. During the day, the servants are almost always here, if not the Earl and Sebastian as well."

"So you mean…"

"As long as we are under this roof, and he has a clear head, he won't be targeting us at 'home base' anytime soon. I doubt it's even worth mentioning to the Earl until things change. If it feels like he's become a threat to our gracious hosts, then we can either choose to inform him of this or leave altogether, though I vote the first option. Being contracted to a Demon himself, he might understand the situation."

"I am still curious as to how the young Earl became contracted to one."

"My guess has to do with the incident when the original Phantomhive Manor caught fire and the Earl went missing for some time before he returned, and Sebastian was suddenly there."

"How did you…?"

"I do my homework, My Lady."

"Clever girl."

"I wouldn't be a very good Saito maid if I wasn't."

"Right, so for now, this stays quiet, until things do get a little too close to home. I suppose by now he's already moved locations."

"Indeed. I took the liberty of going to the return address on the letter myself in the early hours of the morning while the household was still asleep. The entire property was empty. He was clearly ready to move when it became necessary, as he vanished once again in only a few hours."

"Good work, as always, Sakura."

"I live to serve, My Lady."

"I'll be taking my tea in the garden this afternoon, per the usual. It's summer time now, and the weather is finally starting to warm up, just the way I like it."

"Consider it already done." _Though I'll have to get Finnian to distract Pluto for quite some time so My Lady may enjoy her tea in peace without that damned animal bugging her again for attention. Lord knows his transforming powers are a nuisance. It's uncivilized for him to walk around in his human form in his birthday suit._

…..

After a long morning of dealing with the three idiotic servants, Sebastian and Ciel came home around three and the head butler of the house immediately took charge, giving me a break from the silly stooges. The rest of the day went as smooth as high-quality silk imported from China.

In the very late hours of the evening, when the entire household was asleep, I found myself outside in the garden, gazing upon a clear summer night sky, lit only with the brilliance of the full moon dancing along with her charming family of stars. After the hectic day I'd had, it was nice to finally take a little break and possibly relax for a brief moment. Sitting in a garden chair, stroking the silky-haired feline in my lap, all seemed to be peaceful for just a second.

Literally. It only lasted a second.

One instant, I'm enjoying the silence, and the next, an annoying howl ripped through the silence like a letter opener through a wax seal. The look on my face was probably quite amusing, except that there were no witnesses, besides my feline companion, whose fur was now standing on end and a little hiss was escaping her tiny mouth.

"Damn that blasted dog…ready to wake up the entire household, is he? Sebastian really should get a muzzle for that beast." I stood in an irritated fashion and Shadow was hot on my heels as I tromped across the garden to find the mangy animal responsible for the shattered peace that he'd just destroyed.

When I found that damned creature, a certain butler had already beaten me to the punch. And I do mean that in the most literal way possible, once again. Sebastian had given Pluto a good thwack on the nose before the pitiful thing transformed into his humanoid form and practically begged for forgiveness by hugging the butler's leg and rubbing his head up against his thigh. I could hear the sigh escaping from poor Sebastian's mouth, as his back was completely turned to me.

"What am I to do with you, Pluto?"

"Perhaps get him a muzzle? That would be the most logical way to solve your problem if obedience training does not seem to be getting through his thick skull." I interrupted him as I leaned against a nearby tree, smirking, with a grinning feline resting at my feet. He turned around at the sound of my voice and gave me one of his Cheshire cat grins.

"That would be an ample solution, miss, but I'm afraid no muzzle would be able to silence this one. His strength is too much for any restraint to handle."

"You do make an excellent point, Mr. Michaelis. If only Pluto was a cat…they cannot be tamed, as it is not necessary to tame such a beast. They are practically perfect creatures." Shadow glanced up at Pluto with a smug look on her face at the praise, only to receive a growl from the human-shaped mongrel, obviously jealous that the feline was much more favored over him.

"If only he was, we wouldn't be having problems with him destroying the garden." Sebastian gave Pluto a menacing glare and the dog finally scampered off to give his Master some space. The dark-haired handsome devil joined me at my side and we sat down under the tree together. As soon as he was seated in the grass, Shadow climbed into his lap and rubbed her head against his hand, begging for attention. He smiled at her and scratched behind one of her ears as he glanced up at the sky.

"Do you come out here often at night? I sometimes see you gazing at the stars with quite the blissful look on your face."

"No matter how many times I see it, the beauty of the night sky fascinates me, as do most things in this world. Do you not find things in the human world fascinating? I hardly ever see you take time for yourself, unless you're enjoying the company of a cat."

"Besides these perfect little creatures, this world holds no interest to me. When you get to be as old as I am, you tire of the same old scenery and the same souls, wandering about as black as everlasting darkness." Well, Sebastian is being a very talkative individual this evening. I was quite surprised, but it would give me a chance to get better acquainted with this more experienced Demon.

"Yes, those humans do indeed get boring after a while and no less sickening to behold, but I can't help but enjoy the natural beauty of this world, and not just the greenery or the sky. There's beauty to behold in the few souls you do see that are not drowning in darkness."

"Unless you're referring to a newborn infant, there's hardly a soul like that. Humans are villainous little creatures."

This conversation was becoming more and more intriguing by the minute. Sebastian hardly ever speaks to me, so I pressed on further. "Humans actually fascinate me. In our long lifespans, we easily become as close as anyone can get to perfection, but we have the flaw of being quite antisocial. You hardly see more than one Demon roaming the human world in the same area. How humans can flock together in places like this and make relationships is interesting. Granted, most are not very healthy relationships, but watching the innocent couples and families going about their daily lives…the looks they give each other…I find beauty in the love that humans share. Demons nowadays are as cold as the winter snow."

"You're still a young Demon. Eventually your fascination will wither away."

"How old are you, Mr. Michaelis, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I've practically lost count. It's no longer amusing to calculate my age. I doubt you're any older than a century or so."

"Ha, I'll have you know I'm two centuries old, thank you very much."

"Is that so? You're an odd one. To hold humans in high regards like that at your age…"

"That is not the case. I do not hold ALL of them in high regards at all. Most of them, I'd like to watch burn in the flames of hell for their crimes. But, the rare human beings that maintain some semblance of innocence, they are to be held in good terms."

"You sound like a human-born Demon. It's common for them to hold humans in a positive light."

My eyes narrowed at him. Did he have something against Demons that were humans at one point in their lives? I hope not. I just happened to be one, and it's not something I like to share. Human-born Demons were highly frowned upon in Demon society.

"So what if that is the case? It's not like I'm any lower than a natural born Demon."

"I see. That explains a few things about you."

"What do you mean by that, Mr. Michaelis?"

"You seem to be at a similar class of Demon as myself, and a natural at being a servant, yet your power is not as strong as mine."

"Are you impressed? Most human-born Demons end up low class, and it's even rare to find middle class Demons that originated from a human life."

"Pleasantly surprised would be a better term."

"I hope you do not think any lower of me, now that you've discovered my origins."

"It's actually quite the opposite, miss. I'm quite curious. It's not often that I have time to speak with someone of my own kind, let alone one as unique as yourself. How did you come to living as a Demon?"

"A tale like mine would bore you to death."

"Well, we do have quite a bit of time before the sun rises, and there is nothing better to do. The house is in pristine condition, and everyone is asleep. Please, would you kindly indulge a curious Demon, just this once?" With the charming smile he gave me, I couldn't say no. Damn, I'm quite the sucker for a face like that.

"I suppose, just this once. It's rare for a human to become a Demon, after all. A human must be made into a Demon by another Demon, after all. To put it simply, I was made into a Demon out of sheer boredom. In my human life, I was the daughter of an aristocrat. You can imagine the social life I had. Well, apparently, I'd accidentally mingled with the wrong crowd and made myself acquainted with a very bored Demon posing as a human. She took an interest in me and made me a Demon for her own amusement. After about fifty years of having her as my mentor, she grew tired of me and tossed me aside."

"Older Demons like me have been known to do such things to cure their eternal boredom. What a pity."

"Not at all, really. I was a spoiled human brat, and I believe becoming a Demon taught me a valuable lesson. This new life has its perks, as well as its downsides. But, it's hardly ever dull for me. I only take Masters and Mistresses who have been untainted by the corrupt side of this world. Granted, they have a few minor sins here and there, but all of them have been clean to my standards. Each and every one of them has fascinated me, more so than their predecessor. My Lady has undoubtedly been my favorite Mistress. It is almost a pity that her contract is near completion."

"I find you to be extremely unusual, young miss."

"Should I take that as an insult or a compliment, Mr. Michaelis?"

"Miss Yukimura, things that I find unusual tend to keep me from becoming bored of this world. I would consider it a compliment."

"With you, I can never tell if that is your attempt at being a gentleman, or your attempt at flattery."

"That would be, as the humans say, for me to know and you to find out."


	6. His Cat, Annoyed with Red

Chapter 6: His Cat, Annoyed With Red

"I need your help with a case."

"Come again, Earl?"

The shock on My Lady's face was absolutely priceless. Since when did Ciel Phantomhive EVER ask for help from anyone besides his secret contacts? It was quite a surprise to the both of us, indeed. I thought I even glimpsed a hint of surprise in Sebastian's eyes as well.

"The Queen sent me a telegram this morning. You do remember the string of accidents that have been occurring among noblemen in England?"

"How could I forget? It's got everyone with a title in this town looking over their shoulders more frequently than usual. Many suspect they are not accidents at all. It is too much of a coincidence to be so." _I hope My Lady lets nothing slip…then again, if the young Earl has been put on this case, we might have to share more than we are willing to…_

"Her Majesty suspects the same, and has asked Sebastian and me to investigate it. Nobody in Scotland Yard is capable of figuring out the truth behind these deaths, so she has asked us to take care of this matter."

"Well, I don't see why we can't pitch in an extra pair of brains on your little mission. What exactly do you plan to do to start your investigation, Ciel?"

"Another death was reported last night, and Scotland Yard is investigating the scene as we speak. I would like for you to accompany us to the scene of the crime, so that Sebastian and Sakura here can take a look at the scene. From the nature of these deaths, we're either dealing with an expert murderer, a series of unfortunate accidents, or a sick monster of the supernatural kind."

"I thought Sebastian could handle a case like this himself? Surely with the expert work you did on the Jack the Ripper cases…"

"The problem with this case is the lack of evidence. There's hardly ever a trace of a murder left behind, and no pattern to these deaths at all, besides the fact the victims are all noblemen."

My Lady and I shared glances with each other and sighed. "I believe you need to look a little closer, Ciel. The evidence is right in front of you." The two of us already knew who the murderer was, and how he was committing these kills, but we would not go right out and say it. It was **our **task to end his little reign of terror, after all.

Sebastian glanced between the two of us. "If you are referring to the fact that the failing companies were bought up by Mr. Marcus Allen, we have already checked that possibility. He has alibis for every death, and they've all checked out. I took the liberty of checking this information myself this morning."

Ciel gave us very puzzled looks. "You jumped right to the conclusion of Mr. Allen being our prime suspect. Why is that?"

"Don't you think it's a bit odd that he's buying them up just after the head of the companies die? I would suggest that would be an excellent motive for murder. With his kind of money, a professional hit man would be no problem."

Once again, Sebastian had an answer for everything. "We've checked his spending records for the past ten years, company money and his own personal money. Everything suggests he does not have any hired men doing his dirty work. As a matter of fact, his entire record is clean."

"Well, I suppose that would exclude him from the list of suspects, My Lady." _Ku-so. He's left nothing for us to trace. He has to slip up sometime…if his misdeeds were displayed to the public, this would make everything so much easier to handle…but, he's got his little hound doing his dirty work, and he requires no payment until his end result is fully completed, and it's no monetary trade. I suppose it's also been this little hound that has been able to keep his records clean when he DOES hire hit-men to come murder us._

"You seem to already know quite a bit about this case…is there something you would like to share with us, Lady Amaya?" The look that the Earl gave her was a very piercing gaze, as if he was trying to read her very soul if she didn't come out with the truth.

"I've taken an interest in these incidents myself lately. Is it wrong for a lady to do a little homework? I know it's not my job to pry, but I have a devilish curiosity for many things, one thing me and my maid have in common."

"Her curiosity does tend to get her in many predicaments, young Lord." A small smirk crossed my features as I addressed the young Earl with My Lady's tendency to get into trouble very often. Without a doubt, this had been my most troublesome contract so far.

"You're no better, my dear."

"As always, sharp as a knife. It does seem to be that way, My Lady." Of course, I also had my moments where I ended up in unwanted situations myself.

"My Lord, I believe we are wasting daylight."

"Thank you, Sebastian. Shall we go see this supposed crime scene then?"

"Let us be off, then, dear Earl. I hope I can be of assistance in this case in any way possible."

As we all filed out of Ciel's office, I shook my head at her. _Knowing My Lady, she mostly sees it as just another opportunity to get information on Mr. Allen without bringing suspicion upon ourselves. What a day this is going to turn out to be._

…..

Later in the morning, the four of us, five including my sneaky little cat, were all standing in the bedroom of the last noblemen to have died. The body had already been removed, so Sebastian and I were searching the room for any clues as to finding the murderer, despite the fact that My Lady and I already knew. Since she had not already indulged the young Earl in her knowledge, it was obvious that she did not deem it safe to tell them.

Sebastian sighed in exasperation. "Not even a single hair left behind. This room is virtually spotless. This killer must be very cautious, and an excellent cleaner, not even leaving a single trace behind for his pursuers to follow."

_Hah. Try following his trail for two years, and then you can complain, Sebastian. _"This entire room is clean of any evidence."

Ciel frowned at the two of us. "The murder could have taken place anywhere on the premises and the body could have been moved here. Search every inch of this house."

"Yes, My Lord." I find it entertaining that we said those words at the exact same time as we left the room to search the rest of the house, Lady Amaya and the Earl following us.

"If the body was moved, couldn't the murder have taken place virtually anywhere?"

"Moving a dead body around a house is one thing, but moving it across London is practically impossible without at least one witness seeing something suspicious." I sighed and rubbed my forehead. _That, My Lord, is something you don't seem to be as knowledgeable about as us Demons. Moving a body is hardly a chore for us at all._

We continued to search the entire manor, but we had no luck at all, as I suspected from the beginning. Using a Demon as his hit-man would literally leave no traces for us to follow. We were searching blindly for something that wasn't here. After pointless and wasted hours of searching, we returned to the carriage.

Ciel was positively irritated. "I was hoping not to resort to this…but we may have to speak to the Undertaker…he's the one that is taking care of the bodies, correct, Sebastian?"

"Unfortunately, My Lord."

"I hope you have a good joke for him today. He's going to ask for one as payment, as per the usual."

My Lady and I looked at him like he'd just sprouted three heads. "Jokes, Ciel…?"

"The Undertaker is quite unusual…he asks for laughs as payment for his services. It's a silly price to pay, but he provides us very reliable information."

"I take it the Undertaker provides services for the dead, then, young Lord?"

Sebastian gave me a grin. "Indeed he does, and he takes an unusual liking to his job, almost bordering on obsession."

"That is quite…creepy, if I may be so bold as to say so, Mr. Michaelis."

Ciel rolled his eyes. "That is just how he is. I hope you are prepared to entertain a complete loon."

My Lady laughed. "My dear Ciel, what odd company you keep."

…..

It was well past noon when we arrived at a small shop in a quieter part of town. The store had an eerie feel to it, but that might have just been my inner human talking thanks to the atmosphere scenting of embalming fluid and corpses. Sebastian and Ciel appeared to be used to this strange feeling of this shop, because they immediately walked inside without so much as a glance at their surroundings. Our little company of four was much more cautious as we entered the Undertaker's store. Shadow had stayed in the carriage.

There were all kinds of caskets lying everywhere about the place. It was in complete disarray, to my distaste, although the gothic feel of the room suited me just fine. My poor Lady seemed to be a little edgy as she glanced around the shop, looking for this Undertaker character. Well, I would be a little wary, as well, if it weren't for the fact that the Earl and his butler clearly had come in here many times before and trusted this man.

A moment later, a tiny shriek came from Lady Amaya's mouth as a person popped up out of one of the caskets and gave us a charming smile, despite his outward appearance. The long graying hair, dusty old robe and top hat, as well as the stitches that covered most of his snow-pale skin would put anyone off. He appeared to be looking at all of us, for his bangs completely covered his eyes and I couldn't tell if he was or not. He was looking in our general direction, but mostly towards the Earl.

"Ah, it seems the young Lord Phantomhive has come to pay me a visit, and he's brought guests! Would anyone like a cup of tea? To what do I owe this pleasant company?"

"You know exactly why we are here, Undertaker. Tell us about the dead noblemen."

A very creepy-sounding chuckle escaped his mouth and he covered it with a hand, rather amusing as his robe sleeve was much too long for him and dangled limply over the appendage. "You know the rules for my information. Give me a good one today! That butler of yours tells the most wonderful jokes! Grant me the gift of laughter, please? I long to feel its warm touch."

Ciel was about to open his mouth when Lady Amaya cut in. "I believe I'll take care of this one. Sakura here has the perfect one for this occasion."

I let out a sigh. "Yes, My Lady, if you insist on it, I shall tell **that **one." I stepped forward and gave the Undertaker a pleasant smile.

"What did one casket say to the other?"

Confused, the ghostly man thought for a moment, before shrugging his shoulders. "Honestly, I have no idea."

A smirk crossed my features as I gave him my reply. "Is that you coughin'?"

Yes, I know what you are thinking. That is a terrible joke. But, with all my experience in joke telling, I surmised that Undertaker would be someone who laughed at terrible jokes, especially one involving caskets.

Indeed, he did laugh so loud the whole room shook and several caskets fell over. Ciel's mouth was agape with astonishment, obviously surprised that my silly joke did the trick. The poor creature who was now suffering from extreme laughter was rolling about in the coffin he was sitting in, pounding his little fists on anything he could hit in the cramped space.

"Hahaha, that was absolutely brilliant! Ho hahaha!"

"I'm pleased you enjoyed it, Mr. Undertaker."

Ciel recomposed himself and grew slightly impatient at the laughing man. "You have been paid in full. Now, what can you tell us of the noblemen's bodies?"

Undertaker quickly righted himself and adjusted his hat. "A deal's a deal. I'll tell you what I know of it." Everyone eagerly listened in on what the silly man had to say.

"The bodies did indeed seem like they had all died from accidents. But, there is something unusual about every single corpse. But, no human would have ever been able to find this vital piece of evidence."

He let out another giggle before he continued. "Each and every one of them was missing their soul."

My eyes narrowed at the Undertaker. Apparently, this was no mere human we were talking to, and the Earl seemed to know this fact already, as well as his butler. The two pondered over it while My Lady stated what everyone was thinking at that very moment.

"So, you are saying that we are dealing with a Demon here?"

Lady Amaya and I already knew that fact from the beginning, but the information was just now clicking in Ciel and Sebastian's heads. Even these two geniuses would never be able to figure that information out unless they had gotten access to the bodies themselves.

Ciel closed his eye and sighed. "Our suspect list has just dramatically increased with the possibility of a Demon being added to the playing field. Is that all you can tell us, Undertaker?"

Undertaker seemed to give the two of us a knowing look, like he knew we knew all about this case, before he turned to Ciel and shook his head. "I'm sorry, My Lord, but that is all I can give you."

The young Earl nodded to the strange man and turned to Sebastian. "I want you to create another suspect list. We'll have to start from the beginning once again."

Sebastian gave the young Master his classic bow. "Yes, My Lord. Shall we return to the manor, then?"

My Lady quickly interrupted before the young Lord could answer. "You both are welcome to return home if you wish, but I'd like to stay for a little while longer and take a nice walk around London. I feel like window shopping today."

I couldn't help but sigh at My Lady's impulsiveness. She could have had an ulterior motive for this casual stroll, but Lady Amaya, from all the years I've known her, tends to act on whims instead of thinking her actions over more clearly. It was one of the rare faults that I disliked about her.

The young Earl glanced at the two of us. "Then, Sebastian, you shall return to the manor and get started on your work. I will accompany them today."

Sebastian smiled at Ciel and bowed, but I could tell he didn't whole-heartedly approve of this plan. He may have thought of Ciel as a spoiled child that treated his servants poorly, but he still had a protective aura about him when it came to the young man, and it had nothing to do with their contract.

And so, we went our separate ways. The Demon butler walked back to the house with my cat, which reluctantly followed her orders to return home, while we left the carriage at the Undertaker's shop and strolled along the streets of London. My Lady seemed to take interest in window shopping, and Ciel chatted idly with her. I dutifully stood behind the pair and walked with them in silence. This was going to be a long evening.

…..

We spent hours on our little trip around town, even stopping for the young Lord and Lady to eat out tonight before we started to head back to the Undertaker's shop to retrieve the carriage and head home. Our dark-haired companion had yet to rejoin us. Apparently, he was talking his work very seriously to go slow and accurate enough to be away from Ciel for this long.

Our little group was almost to the shop when the sound of a loud scream and the painful noise of an organic substance being crushed reached my sensitive ears. But, you didn't have to be a Demon to hear a noise that close by. Amaya had frozen at the sound and Ciel's face immediately grew serious, almost to the point of anger.

"There's been another attack. Let's move."

"How are you so sure it's him, Ciel…? Ciel, wait!"

The young boy was already running in the direction of the noise, and My Lady had dashed after him. I had no trouble following the pair as they rushed towards the impending danger, while Amaya was yelling at Ciel to call Sebastian and just wait for him instead of rushing to the scene and putting himself in harm's way.

Our murder scene appeared to us as we rounded one of the corners of a building into a dark alley of London and spotted the mangled corpse of a man lying on the ground. I quickly covered Lady Amaya's eyes to protect her from the revolting sight, but it was too late for me to defend Ciel's eyes from the visually assaulting view. From the blood spatter and the broken bones jutting out of his torn-up skin, he clearly fell from the very tall building to our right. Unfortunately, he also seemed to have been wearing some very fine clothes. Even worse, Ciel managed to identify him. This was indeed caused by James.

"That's Mr. Harris. I used to do business with his company."

My eyes flashed dangerously. "The Demon could still be in the area. I suggest we call Scotland Yard and the both of you return to the manor." I wouldn't admit this to either of them, but I knew for a fact of James attacked, I wouldn't be able to prevent both of them from walking away from a fight with a Demon unscathed. I'm strong, but not strong enough to defend two helpless children from another Demon such as myself. If Shadow were here, it would be a different story. She could have fled with them to safety, but seeing as she was not present, I'd either have to grab them and make a run for it, or stand and fight, if he was still present.

I was completely on edge as I nudged the two gently away from the corpse, despite Ciel's single-eyed glare of protest. Amaya was rather willing to get away from the stench of death that was already spreading throughout the area. It wouldn't be long before this body was discovered, and if they found us at the scene, we would be the first ones blamed, and a lot of panic would ensue.

Before we even walked two steps, I heard something behind me and spun around to face a character of unusual appearance. The two were shoved protectively behind me as I glared at the foul creature before me. _Oh, brilliant, a bloody reaper. Just what I needed. He must have come to collect the soul, despite there being no soul left to collect. It was devoured even before death, explaining the scream __**before**__ the fall._

"Looks like I've caught our culprit red-handed!" The gentleman had long hair of a shocking shade of bright red, and the shark-toothed grin he gave us would scare the wits out of any mortal. His red coat covered most of his body and made him look like a giant blob of red with yellow eyes like a cat, though a reaper was too low a creature to be compared to something as perfect as a feline.

He pushed up his horn-rimmed red glasses higher onto his nose, the miniature skulls hanging from the ends swinging about at the sudden motion of the host they were attached to. The most shocking things about this gentleman was that he seemed to be wearing make-up, and he was carrying an unusual metal weapon with teeth-like blades all around the edge, with a large red handle. I'd never seen a sword like that before.

"I believe you are jumping to conclusions, boy."

The red-head glared at me with a look full of fiery hatred and fury. "How insulting! I will have you know, I am a WOMAN!"

I couldn't help but chuckle devilishly at this reaper. "If you are a woman, I'm the Queen of England."

He screeched in fury and swung the weapon over his shoulder. "Let's see if you can insult me when I cut your tongue out!"

A male voice from behind me, sounding highly irritated, directed questions at our guest. "Grell Sutcliffe, what the bloody Hell are you doing here?! And I thought your death scythe was confiscated!" Obviously, he knew this person, and knew he's a grim reaper.

Grell squinted his eyes at the half-hidden child and smirked. "Well, if it isn't the young Lord Phantomhive. I'll have you know I was temporarily given my death scythe to solve this case of humans on our To-Die list that don't have their souls!" He grinned triumphantly. "And I have clearly solved it! This filthy Demon woman wannabe has been eating them before we can collect them!"

I glowered at the reaper. "You clearly have mistaken me for another Demon. I am only here to solve this case on behalf of my Mistress. Your culprit has already long since run off, so I suggest you leave, immediately." I was already dangerously close to wanting to destroy this bastard.

"As if I'd believe the word of a Demon! Besides, I'm not leaving without seeing my dear Bassy! He's always with that little runt. Where is that gorgeous Demon of yours, boy?" He covered his eyes with his hand and looked about for the Demon as he put heavy emphasis on the word gorgeous.

Lady Amaya narrowed her eyes at Grell. "Sebastian is off on business, but as his house guest, I will not allow you to insult our gracious host. If you wish to start a fight with Sebastian, my own maid will serve as a temporary replacement. Sakura, kill this ignorant grim reaper."

"With pleasure, My Lady." I slipped my gloves off and eagerly pulled out my knives while my foe stared at me, wide-eyed, for a moment. Then, his face became consumed in complete and utter rage, unlike before; this seemed to be a more crazed version of his earlier anger.

"THIS WRETCHED DEMON WOMAN IS SLEEPING IN THE SAME HOUSE AS MY BASSY?! HOW DARE YOU! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" His obsession with the dark-haired butler was obvious as he zeroed in on me as his target and pulled a cord on his death scythe, revving up like an engine and starting the blade on a rotating motion.

_What kind of weapon is that, powered by something similar to a car motor? This might be a bit of a problem._ I highly doubted fancy knives were going to do much against a weapon like that. With the force I could feel it exerting, that weapon was a lot more dangerous while it was moving. Nevertheless, I still had to protect My Lady and Lord Ciel while Sebastian seemed to be absent.

I charged at Grell and ducked a massive swing from his death scythe. His weapon ended up embedding itself in the brick wall to our left and he pulled it out easily, bringing chunks of brick with it. But, now I was behind him, and I countered his attack with a quick slashing motion of my arms. I managed to slice into his jacket, but he moved away before I could cut any deeper.

Amaya gripped Ciel's arm while she watched the fight. "Ciel, call Sebastian, quickly!"

Ciel sighed and gave her an exasperated and bored look. "Shouldn't your maid be able to handle this?"

"It never hurts to have back-up."

"She'll be fine."

_As usual, treating his soldiers like dispensable pawns. No matter. I shall prove to My Lady that I don't need Sebastian's help and she is needlessly worrying over me, the one who is to take her soul in the future. She is too good to me, indeed. Still, I feel ashamed she thinks that I require assistance with dealing with a crazed lunatic like this._

I darted out of the way of another swing from his death scythe, receiving a light cut on my upper left arm. Despite it being unable to go very deep thanks to my speed, those teeth did a number on the skin and tore right through many layers. Now my arm was heavily bleeding and staining my beautiful coat. I was starting to get irritated. _Any deeper, he could have sawed the bone in half and my arm would be dangling uselessly._

The two of us continued our deadly dance, dodging and attacking each other's swift movements. My disadvantage was being unable to block his attacks, or I'd quickly lose my weapons to the rotating blade, which also meant I couldn't let him block me, either. I kept going for his vitals, but he just countered with his death scythe every time so I had to withdraw before I even made a blow. Even if the heavy weapon made him slower, he still had a better defense up than I did.

A sudden downward slashing attack from that powerful death scythe left me with a tough choice, and I had to act fast. I used the knives to block the attack, but I had to immediately let them go, before they were sawed in half by the weapon. They were flung high into the air by the spinning teeth and landed behind the reaper and closer to My Lady and Ciel. Now, I was unarmed, and he was going for another swing. I jumped backwards away from his attack, leaping over the dead body in my way, and realized the bastard had managed to corner me against the back wall. I had practically no room to move in this cramped space. I'd have to change the battle scene to turn things in my favor. I turned around and dashed up the wall until I got to the top, and flipped onto the roof. Grell took the bait and followed me up in a single leap. Now, the two humans were out of harm's reach, and I had much more space to run around and fight him.

He kept swinging at me again and again as soon as his heeled boots clacked against the roof tiles, and I had to think quickly to discover a way to defeat that weapon of his before I ended up being sliced in half like a butter knife through butter. He was getting dangerously close to nicking me with that blade of his again, and this battle was getting nowhere without my knives. I was going to have to retrieve them if I was to do any damage to this loon.

My plan went immediately into action. I shrugged out of the light overcoat I had been wearing over my maid dress and tossed it towards him like a flowing cape as a distraction to cut through before I headed for the edge of the roof to leap off of it and retrieve my knives.

Grell was surprised at my sudden action, but he cut right through the coat anyway and followed after me. Somehow, he managed to leap right over my head and land in front of me, barring my way.

"Running away from me, are you, dear?"

"Only from that ugly make-up soaked face of yours. That much make-up does not suit a man."

"I. AM. A. WOMAN!" In a rage-filled attack, he swung his death scythe at me and I tried to dodge, but the teeth still cut through my dress and right into the skin on my torso, leaving a long diagonal slash across my chest. The top half of my dress was barely clinging to my skin, as the movement had torn one of the sleeves and cut cleanly from neck hem to waist, and it now hung loosely and exposed too much skin for my taste. Having your cleavage showing and your breasts barely contained in your top is extremely embarrassing in public, unless you are a prostitute. If he'd cut straight down, my outfit would have most likely exposed my entire torso.

The force of the impact knocked me right onto my back, and now a grinning Grell was at my side, preparing to cut me in half at the hips with his death scythe. I threw up my hands to defend myself, but that apparently wasn't necessary.

A dark figure had his bare hands, black fingernails contrasting with the ghostly skin, on either side of the rotating blade, rendering it harmless, as it was now immobile with the blades still spinning and cutting nothing but air. A playful tsk came from behind his Cheshire cat grin. "Grell, that temper of yours is bound to get you into trouble."

The red-head immediately withdrew his weapon and tossed it aside, grinning happily at the Demon butler. "Oh, Bassy, I knew you would come to see me!" He ran towards Sebastian with arms outstretched and his lips in a smooching position, but Sebastian backhanded Grell and sent him flying several feet away from us. I wouldn't be surprised if he went half a mile across the rooftops of London with that slap.

"My apologies for his behavior, miss. He shall not harm you again." He turned around to face me and smiled pleasantly, his hand outstretched to me. I didn't want to appear as weak, but I took his hand anyway as a thank you for just saving me hours spent in my room trying to pull two halves of me back together and waiting for my body to mend itself. As my bare hand touched his, I could feel his emotions easily through our skin contact. Despite his smile, he was seething with rage, more rage than even Grell, which was quite surprising for the normally calm butler. He hid his emotions well, but he couldn't hide anything from me if I was making contact with his bare skin.

His observant eyes scanned over my dreadful appearance and sighed. "It seems Mr. Sutcliffe lacks the appropriate knowledge of how to treat a lady." He slipped out of his own overcoat and placed it over my shoulders to help hide the completely destroyed dress and save my chest from prying eyes. The coat was very big on me, so it covered up the unsightly remains of the top half of my dress, and I gave him a grateful smile, ignoring the slight blush coming to my cheeks at his kind gesture. We no longer were holding hands, but his guard was apparently slipping, as I could still sense his emotions. He was genuinely being kind to me for some odd reason. Not that I disliked it at all, on a side note.

A yell of utter anger came from my right and I noticed Grell had recovered and he was giving me death glare. If looks could kill a Demon, this one sure would have.

"How DARE you get all cozy with MY Bassy! I'll destroy you!"

If he wasn't threatening me, I would have sweat-dropped. _It isn't like that at all, you imbecile._

I stepped forward to meet his challenge, but Sebastian barred my way. "I must thank you for keeping my Master out of harm's way, but I shall take care of him, miss." With his emotions switching back to rage, I wasn't about to stand in his way. When a Demon was pissed off, the smartest thing for you to do is back off. Unless, of course, you are the object of their rage. At that point in time, all you can do is urinate yourself and beg your God for the utmost mercy on a quick end.

Sebastian drew several pieces of silverware from his tailcoat and glared at Grell while he revved up his death scythe and focused his attention on me and not Sebastian. "If I have to cut through you to kill that harlot, I shall, Bassy!"

The fight was just about to commence, when a figure stepped out of the shadow of the taller building. "That's enough, Grell. You are already on probation for your last mishap. These Demons are not responsible for the theft of these humans' souls. The woman arrived after the soul was already gone." He must have been watching the whole thing.

Grell glared at me. "But…but!"

The tall stranger with dark hair pulled back neatly and black spectacles used his grabbing tool death scythe to push his glasses higher up his nose. "You'll lose your death scythe again if you do not return to headquarters immediately for de-briefing."

He gave me another death glare before he grumbled and walked towards the man. "You are always ruining everything, Will!"

Sebastian sighed. "Mr. Spears, I suggest you put a tighter leash on Mr. Sutcliffe from now on. I do not appreciate him attacking my Master's house guests."

This Spears man, another reaper, glared at Sebastian. "Maybe your kind should learn to control their eating habits, and we wouldn't have this problem. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm already behind schedule from this incident as it is, and now I must assign Sutcliffe more overtime."

Grell started to complain, but Spears grabbed him by the ear and dragged him into the shadows, where they disappeared. Sebastian slowly started to relax and replaced the silverware, but his guard went back up, and his emotions were hidden once again. He turned to me and gave me another smile. "Are you all right, miss?"

I sighed and glanced at my feet. "I'll live. A few little scratches are nothing." In truth, the pain in my torso was only increasing the more I stood up, and I was ready to retreat back to the manor for a nap, and to hide the shame spreading throughout my being for having to be rescued by Sebastian.

"Our little adventure ends here for the evening. Let us return to the manor." He leapt off of the roof and landed in front of the two children, who had been watching the entire battle from the ground.

"You're late, Sebastian."

"Forgive my lateness, young Master. An emergency presented itself in the household, and I had to correct it."

"Pluto set the greenhouse on fire again, didn't he?"

"Unfortunately, My Lord, but it has been dealt with."

I leapt down and joined them, only to receive the half-scowl, half-upset look from My Lady. "I expect to see better work from you next time, Sakura."

"My apologies, My Lady. It is my own fault for lack of experience fighting a reaper." I curtsied apologetically to her and kept my face to my boots as Ciel addressed Sebastian.

"What are we to do about the body?"

"Ah, yes, I took the liberty of contacting Scotland Yard before leaving the manor. They should be arriving to clean up the mess within the next ten minutes. I suggest we leave before they arrive. I've already brought the carriage around."

"Thank you, Sebastian." Ciel turned on his heel and headed out of the alleyway, soon followed by Sebastian and My Lady. I followed behind, still downtrodden over my failure. It was times like this my emotions were too hard to hide. This time was even worse. I'd proven myself weak in front of Lord Ciel and Sebastian as well. To be shamed in this way was utterly embarrassing. I would have to work much harder to wipe the smudge of shame from my name.

Next time I saw that blasted reaper, those long red locks of his were getting an impromptu haircut. Hopefully, along with his head.


	7. His Cat, Dancing

Chapter 7: His Cat, Dancing

"CIEEEEEEEEEEL!" A blur of yellow and pink whizzed right by me like a gun from a bullet as I opened the door to the manor to admit whoever had just knocked on the front door. Sebastian and Ciel had been busy in their office, planning our trip to the Phantomhive's summer house to inspect the property and continue their research into the nobleman accidents, so I took it upon myself to answer to door for our guest.

Whatever had just entered the manor stopped in the foyer and looked around in surprise. "Wait, where's Ciel…? He's always around Sebastian, and didn't he answer the door…?" Apparently, she hadn't noticed that the butler wasn't the one who answered it. She seemed to just notice my presence and smiled cheerfully. "Oh, hello there!"

"My Lady, please, that was quite rude!" A tall woman with brunette hair and dressed all in emerald green rushed in and fussed over the young lady while I curtsied politely to the noble child.

Everyone in the manner came to see what all the fuss was about, and the small lady with her curly blonde pigtails and elegant pink dress beamed from ear to ear as soon as she spotted the Earl. "Ciel, darling!" In an instant, she had zoomed to him as he reached the bottom of the stairs and tackled him into a very tight hug.

The young Earl put on one of his fake smiles and patted her head. "It's nice to see you too, Lizzy, but you could have called to say you were coming." Ah, yes. This young lady must be Lady Elizabeth. With Ciel's disposition, I didn't expect her to be so…enthusiastic.

He managed to pry the young lady off and dusted off his coat before Elizabeth now spotted Lady Amaya, who was standing at my side. "Oh, and who are they? They're so cute!" _Dear God, she did NOT just call me CUTE._

Ciel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb from his left hand. "Lizzy, I told you I had guests for a few months, did I not? This is Lady Amaya Saito, and her maid, Sakura. Lady Saito came all the way from Japan to apprentice under me."

We both curtsied politely to her, as was customary in this country. Usually, we'd bow, but we'd gotten into this habit out of respect for the social norm here in London. "I've heard so much about you, Lady Elizabeth; it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Lady Elizabeth grinned happily at Lady Amaya and grabbed her small hands in her own tiny palms. "It's so wonderful to meet another friend of Ciel's! I must say you are absolutely adorable! Where'd you get that dress? It's absolutely charming! And your maid has such a unique hair color! How'd she get it to be that way?"

While Lady Amaya was trying to entertain Lady Elizabeth by answering her barrage of questions with the best answers she could and Ciel joined in on their conversation, Sebastian moved to stand beside me with my cat in his arms. "I apologize for being too occupied to answer the door."

"It's quite all right, Mr. Michaelis." I didn't look the butler in the eye as I watched the three young ones have a nice little chit-chat. Oh, to be that young again and carefree instead of a teenage maid who got her rump handed to her by a gender-confused grim reaper the day before. I'd healed nicely overnight, but the embarrassment from being shamed by Sebastian had not. I'd already taken the liberty of giving the other servants a break and cleaned the entire manor, inside and out, while Sebastian and Ciel were occupied. Everything seemed to be in absolute perfection. Still, that would not be enough for my satisfaction.

I couldn't tell if he noticed my cold demeanor this morning. His guard was up, so I couldn't use my special ability to sense his emotion. Usually, I'm very good at sensing emotions, especially in humans. I can always tell when someone is hiding behind a mask, like when Ciel only pretends to smile when he really wants to bash his head against a wall in annoyance. But, Sebastian is much harder to read, as are all Demons. They are much harder to feel, as they can easily defend themselves from my prying sixth sense. Every Demon has a special ability. I know for a fact that Sebastian's is flying, he's spoken of it before. He rarely ever uses it, of course. He's already talented enough that he doesn't need to fly.

My mind stopped its wandering when Elizabeth bellowed with her loud voice. "YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T THROWN THEM A WELCOMING PARTY, CIEL?!"

The young Earl sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Lizzy, you know I don't have the time to be able to throw parties whenever I want to at the manor. Besides, we are leaving for the summer house in a few days. I have work I must attend to there."

Elizabeth seemed to pout. "Then you MUST throw them a party before you leave! It's very rude to have guests in your house from another country and you didn't throw a party to welcome them at all! Don't you agree, Amaya?"

"Umm…"

"It's settled, we are having a party in your honor!"

Ciel practically gave a pleading look to My Lady while Lady Elizabeth was already scurrying about the house and making plans in her mind, but she shook her head sheepishly at the young Lord. She was clearly uninterested in trying to sway the young lady's mind against this party. She quite seemed to have her mind made up on the whole thing.

"Sebastian, start preparing for the party…" The Earl sighed in defeat and gave his butler a look of utter irritation.

The dark-haired Demon bowed to Ciel and gave him a smile. "Yes, My Lord." He left the room to start preparations while I glanced at My Lady. "Do you wish for me to aid Mr. Michaelis in the preparations, My Lady?"

Lady Amaya glanced over at me with a frown and shook her head. "Sebastian has this handled. If we're to be the guest of honors at this party, we're going to need our kimonos. See to it that both are in perfect order."

I believe she is still angry at me for last night. I suppose that it is justified, as I failed miserably to kill that blasted reaper. "As you wish, My Lady." I headed for My Lady's room while the three nobles continued their chat and I heard Sebastian barking orders to the rest of the servants in the house.

Things are going to become quite busy around the manor, aren't they?

…..

So, the weekend before we were to depart, Ciel, unwillingly, threw us a little party at the manor. A bunch of nobles that My Lady and I weren't interested in were already down in the ballroom, dancing the night away along to the beautiful sound of classical music. My Lady was fashionably late as usual, but only because she'd insisted on dressing herself, which ended up quite a disaster, so I had to step in and help her.

I had to say, My Lady looked absolutely stunning. We sat in front of the vanity and I was just finishing up with her hairstyle, which we had chosen a simple bun with a pale red ribbon for a touch of color to her short dark hair. She was wearing her favorite kimono of a deep ocean blue color embroidered with white flowers. Her obi was a multitude of colors, mostly browns and reds to accent the kimono nicely with various patterns strewn across the cloth. Her favorite sandy brown slippers completed the outfit.

"There we are, all finished. Now, we may join the guests in the ballroom."

"Your pigtails are crooked."

"Forgive me, My Lady, I shall attend to that immediately." I glanced at myself in the mirror, hardly recognizing the stranger reflected in the glass. My long hair had been pulled up into two pigtails, each being bound up with pale black ribbons. The kimono I was sporting perfectly matched my hair color, and small lighter blue and white flowers were etched into the smooth fabric, and a pale black obi to contrast the bright colors. I was also wearing dark-colored slippers. I thought I looked more like a ghost than usual, but it was My Lady's wishes that I wear it this evening. I would have rather worn my usual maid attire and went about my usual duties as a servant, but apparently, I was to be counted as a guest, despite my position. All of the other servants were stuck doing work this evening, while I was supposed to having my own little vacation. That word isn't even in my vocabulary, or the mental dictionary of my mind.

Now that the two of us were presentable, we went downstairs and headed for the ballroom. I walked behind her dutifully as we entered the large and lively room. Many people stopped to look at the two of us, dressed so oddly in the attire of our own country, but I wasn't really paying attention to any of them. I was already bored with this little party. The chattering talk of the humans was boring, and everyone interesting here (aka the Phantomhive household) seemed to be busy with their own work. Already My Lady gave me a dismissive look as she headed into the crowd to start her useless mingling, but she had to put up a good appearance for all of these nobles, to keep any unwanted rumors at bay. The two may have been practically children, yes, but the fact that a young lady and a young man were staying in a manor together already had people suspicious.

Well, now that My Lady was having a satisfactory time at her party, I decided to slip out to a quieter place to be alone. The stares that the humans were giving me were already driving me nuts. The men were only eyeing me up and the women were staring at me with hatred is because I'm a Demon. They're naturally attracted to us. We're mysterious beings, and that's what they find so alluring about us. Now, most Demons are also physically attractive, but I never thought of myself in that way, even in my life as a human. The main reason because of my hair. It used to be black, like most Japanese women, but it had changed color when I was reborn. But, nobody liked my hair, even when it was black. They just didn't like how long it was. My own fiancé thought of me as an ugly creature with a lot of money, and he was quite happy to be rid of me when I disappeared to start a new life as a Demon. I don't regret that part about my rebirth at all. Just now, people have another physical aspect they don't like about me.

It's always the sinners that end up truly cursed.

…..

It amazes me how half of the ballroom went quiet when the two ladies entered. I wasn't sure if it was the foreign dresses they were wearing, or their beauty, but my eyes went straight to the lovely Demoness standing behind Lady Amaya. She looked more stunning than usual. With an appearance like that, she'd leave any Demon crawling on his knees, begging for her attention.

"Sebastian, stop gawking at her, please. She'll notice." Ah, how my young Lord saw through everything. He was giving me another one of his stern looks as I glanced down at his short figure standing right next to me. He looked quite dashing, all dressed up in his royal blue suit, one that Lady Elizabeth had picked out for him months ago and requested that he wear it again this evening. Well, dashing, for a human, that is. The sour look he had on his face spoiled his appearance.

"My apologies, My Lord. I couldn't help myself." _I could have sworn you had a similar look on your face addressed to Lady Amaya, young Master, but I shall not speak that aloud. The blush that would spread across your face would be too embarrassing for a setting such as this._

Miss Yukimura slipped away from the party as her human companion gave her a look of dismissal and went to chit-chat with a few of the other nobles in the room. I raised an eyebrow and watched her go, a slight hint of jealousy and amusement coming to the surface. _Apparently, she isn't one for parties either._

While I glanced around at the servants to make sure they weren't making a mess of things, my young Lord left my side and walked out onto the dance floor towards the small group that consisted of multiple nobles, Lady Elizabeth, and Lady Amaya. To my surprise, the young Earl with very little dance skills was now leading a young lady by the hand out onto the dance floor, but it was not his fiery pink-doused fiancé, but the quiet flower-covered Lady Amaya. Even from all away across the ballroom, I could see the young girl's blush that had appeared on her cheeks. I must say, she looked quite adorable that way, but her flushed face would be nothing compared to the reddened face I managed to spot a few nights ago that clashed with a certain young maid's blue hair.

She seemed to occupy my thoughts lately. It might have been how aloof she'd been these past few days. I hardly saw her at all in the manor, and when we did bump into each other, she hardly spoke a word to me and continued on her business. Usually she'd at least give me a warm greeting and a small chat before she went back to work. Something was clearly bothering her, and I already had a good guess as to what that was.

My young Master seemed to be occupied with Lady Amaya and the stares of their audience, so I decided it would do no harm to slip out and see where she had hidden herself away from the crowd. After all, I had no specific orders to stay in the ballroom.

The maid hadn't gone very far from the party. Somehow, she'd managed to slip out onto the large balcony without anyone noticing. Now that I was closer, she seemed even more radiant under the light of the moon. I found her almost mystical appearance to be quite alluring, like a lunar goddess. She seemed lost in thought as she leaned against the railing and stared up at the moon. I noticed she seemed to be singing to herself, to quiet for any human to hear over the loud music coming from inside.

"Fū ni jiyū ni odoru,

Watashi no hanabira ga yūrei no yōna yūga ni ochiru.

Watashi ni anata no kurai komori-uta o utau,

Anata no hōyō de watashi o hoji shimasu.

Toki ni watashitachi no sekai no fēdo

Matawa hoka no subete wa kono akumu no yōna gēmu de ushinawareta...

Watashi wa, anata no kuroi namida o kawakashimasu,

Anata no itami wa,-en no naka de kieru."

A smile came to my face as I clapped three times at her little performance. She must have just noticed my presence, for she turned abruptly and that blush I adore spread across her face like a flame. Quite distracted, indeed.

I bowed politely to her. "My apologies for interrupting your song. You have a lovely singing voice, Miss Yukimura. I can assume that was Japanese, no? I have yet to study that language in my long years, so I am afraid I do not know the proper translation. Maybe you could sing it again for me, in English?"

An impossible feat occurred; she blushed even more, making her face appear to be like a rose, bright and full of beauty. But, after mulling over my request for a second, she let out a relaxed breath, despite breathing being unnecessary for beings such as ourselves, and she started again, this time in English.

"Dancing freely in the wind,

My petals fall with ghostly grace.

Sing to me your dark lullaby,

Hold me in your embrace.

When our world fades,

Or all else is lost in this nightmare game...

I will dry your black tears,

Your pain will vanish in a flame."

Miss Yukimura then turned to me, her head cocked to the side in a cute fashion. "Was that to your liking, Mr. Michaelis?" Her mood seemed to be a bit glummer. Now she wasn't smiling as she had been before I had intruded on her private concert.

I sighed in dismay and joined her by her side, glancing up at the stars that she gazed at every evening. "Why do you look at me so? Have I done something to upset you, young miss?"

"No, you have not."

"You are upset at **someone**, that I can be sure of. Fooling a Demon is much harder than fooling your Mistress."

For a moment, I thought she would refuse to answer, but she responded after a few seconds. "I suppose I am upset at myself."

"Might this have something to do with the incident involving Mr. Sutcliffe?"

"Don't be coy. It has everything to do with that. I shamed myself in front of My Lady and the young Earl by being unable to defeat that twit." She snapped back instantly at my observation.

I can understand why she would be upset with herself. To Demons of our caliber, our reputation with our contract is everything. We strive for absolute perfection, and when perfection is not reached, we feel quite inadequate about ourselves until we manage to redeem ourselves. I have shamefully committed such atrocities myself, such as preparing dinner late. That wasn't entirely my fault, as I was forced to rescue My Lord from yet another kidnapper. He does get into trouble quite often.

"May I be so bold as to offer a bit of advice? Do not dwell on that mistake. Grell is quite the formidable opponent, and not only were you looking after your own charge, but mine as well. Also consider you've never fought a weapon such as that before."

"I've never fought a reaper at all before."

"Please do not let this incident upset you. We have all the time in the world to mend our mistakes. Be glad you are not human. They have very little time at all for such things. Most do not even consider doing such a thing."

"Why do you always make sense, Mr. Michaelis?"

"I'm simply one hell of a butler, Miss Yukimura."

"Or you are just rather old."

"You must admit, wisdom will defeat natural talent any day."

"Touché."

Another song began from inside the ballroom, and I turned to the moon princess beside me. "Would you care to dance, Miss Yukimura? This is a party in the Saito family's honor, and you have yet to dance even once. I insist on at least one dance."

Her face once again became crimson, like blood. Today seemed to be a special day, for she hardly ever blushed this much in one evening. I pride myself in being the only one who has been able to make her blush like this. Out of curiosity, I asked Lady Amaya if she has ever seen her maid blush the day before, and she confided in me that she never has. She once even spoke to Miss Yukimura about it out of sheer curiosity, and apparently, she hasn't blushed at all since she became a Demon in the first place.

That did not surprise me at all. Most human-born Demons in their first hundred years lose sight of their human emotions and become like stone. It is as if they completely forgot how to feel in the first place. But, eventually, they do come back to them, like a faint memory. As you can see, Demons that were once human have tougher lives than Demon offspring.

I am quite pleased that she has already passed that stage of her life. To see a face such as this, cold as stone, it would be quite a shame. She is more beautiful when she smiles.

Speaking of the princess, she seemed to be frozen in her embarrassment, so I took the opportunity to take her hand and pull her away from the railing so we had more space.

Finally, she snapped out of her daze. "B-But…uh…I don't know how to dance…"

Turning to her, I smiled. "You were never taught how to dance?"

"Not in the English fashion, at least. I know many dances from my home country, but none from yours. Why do you think Lady Amaya is having trouble keeping up with the young Earl? She only took one lesson from an instructor in her younger years about dances from this country."

Indeed, the young miss seemed to be having trouble dancing with my Master, but I could clearly see through the glass doors of the balcony that both of our humans were having a pleasant time with one another. This had to be the third time that the two were dancing with one another.

"Well, I believe I will have to give your Mistress a dancing lesson soon. I instructed the young Earl myself, despite his lack of skills. I would be happy to teach her. But first, shall I give you a quick lesson?" I pulled her closer to me and placed an arm on her delicate waist while I held her other hand in preparation for a waltz. Startled, she jumped a little bit at my touch. I gave her an amused laugh as I let go of her hand to slide her free hand onto my shoulder, as a way of demonstrating the proper dance position for ladies, before I took her hand again.

"The simple waltz is a necessity for dancing. Let me show you." I began my instruction as another song began and I observed her as she tried her best to follow my movements, all while keeping her flushed cheeks focused on our feet instead of me. I find her shyness to be absolutely cute. She is indeed a very unique Demoness. Most are drawn to me like a moth to a flame, always aiming to get my attention for…well, I shall not even think of such things in front of a lady. In this case, it seemed I was drawn to her, and not for any indecent reasons. Maybe it has to do with my "cat fetish", as My Lord so often puts it.

"You act as if you've never touched a grown man before. I must admit, it is quite adorable."

"Well, actually…"

Now, **this **was amusing. I leaned in and smirked, whispering in her ear. "Are you embarrassed to admit that you are a virgin?" For a Demon of her age, it was unheard of.

She kept her eyes to her feet, but I could feel the shiver run down her spine. Just little whispers affect women so dramatically.

"Let's not speak of this at the moment. It isn't my fault I became a Demon when I was sixteen." She must have her own personal reasons for remaining pure. I refused to spoil the mood, so I quickly changed the subject.

"You are doing splendidly. Are you sure you haven't done this before?"

"Mr. Michaelis, you are always flattering me. Dancing is a simple task for ones such as us."

"I cannot help myself but to shower you with compliments. Any gentleman would feel the need to flatter a princess."

The compliment got the desired effect and she looked up at me, those deep eyes probing my face, as if she was searching for the sincerity of my words. I already knew of her secret talent for sensing emotions. I had already felt her presence in my very soul only days ago as she read my feelings like one would read a book. She would find nothing but sincerity, of course.

Most know that I have a reputation with women, only because of my contract. There are times when I must tell a few lies and get a lady to bat her eyelashes at me so I may complete my Master's orders. That was not the case with this creature, which was completely oblivious to her own adorable, yet alluring, charms.

As quickly as it had begun, the song ended, and I reluctantly pulled away from her. Unfortunately, this moment of tenderness had to come to its close. Tomorrow we would be returning to our duties as servants to the nobles in the house. But, for just a moment, I was able to enjoy myself in her presence.

I felt my Faustian mark tingle on the back of my hand and sighed. "It seems the young Master is calling for me."

"My Lady is calling me, too. They must want to be prepared for bed."

"We must continue this lesson another time."

"Indeed we must. It was…pleasant." She smiled that warm smile at me again, causing me to smile at her in return.

"Until next time, My Princess." Before she could say anything about the little nickname, I was already gone, returning to my duties as the butler of the Queen's Guard Dog.


	8. His Cat, Rescue

Chapter 8: His Cat, Rescue

It seemed to be another lovely, warm morning. Everyone in the Phantomhive manor was enjoying their little holiday at the Earl's summer home, basking in the sunshine and frolicking in the gardens. Well, everyone but the young Master of the house himself and his butler. The two had practically stayed holed up in his office for the past few days.

At the moment, My Lady was enjoying a nice cup of tea in the backyard, watching Finnian play with Pluto. I stood at her side, stroking the purring feline in my arms. What a marvelous day to spend outside, indeed.

My Lady suddenly placed her tea cup down on her saucer and sighed. "We're going to have to tell them soon, aren't we? The Earl is a brilliant detective, especially with the aid of his butler. They will discover the true culprit of the murders, and soon, they will also know of our involvement in the case. I doubt we can keep the wool pulled over their eyes forever."

"I must agree with you, My Lady. This unfortunate situation will soon come to light before the young Lord's eyes. I'd rather we tell him instead of him finding out in any other manner. Secrets kept between friends are considered an act of betrayal."

"So, when should we tell him, and how much?"

"That is not for me to decide, My Lady."

"You could at least give me a suggestion."

"Do not be indecisive for too long. I fear he is on the verge of discovering the murderer."

"Sometimes, you are absolutely no help at all."

"I was only offering friendly advice, My Lady."

…..

After My Lady finished her tea, she excused herself and re-entered the manor. I could hear her footsteps as she headed into Ciel's office. _Ah, there she goes, brave girl. Knowing My Lady, she won't go into details, but she should at least explain the situation before things get out of hand, or worse, the Earl's life becomes endangered._

In a matter of minutes, I was joined by my favorite servant of the house, the dark-haired butler. His behavior had gone back to normal since the evening of the party, but he seemed to smile at me more often when we were alone. I swear, I've caught him calling me "My Princess" once or twice this week too when I wasn't paying much attention to him.

"Good evening, miss. The weather seems to be spectacular today."

"Indeed it does, Mr. Michaelis."

"Do you have any notion as to why your Mistress just shooed me out of my Master's office?"

"There is a private matter she must discuss with him at the moment. You shall be told soon enough what she's speaking of."

"Can't you tell me?" He gave me the most adorable innocent face I have ever seen, but this time, I had to resist that look.

"Unfortunately, I can't. That is for your Master to decide."

He mock pouted at me, but he turned his attention to my napping cat and scratched her head between her ears. She opened one eye to look at him, meowed, and then went back to sleep.

"She is quite an adorable specimen indeed…"

"Won't Ciel allow you to keep a pet?"

"You know as well as I do that the young Master's allergy and distaste for ordinary felines prevents me from doing so."

"I suppose that is a problem. Oh, well. Maybe you can get one when this contract reaches its eventual end."

"Right, as usual. You've never spoken of what goals you must accomplish to fulfill your contract. What is the young Lady's wish?"

"As a matter of fact, that would be what she is speaking to the young Lord about at this very moment."

"I see…"

The two of us paused for a moment. I was feeling a familiar tingling sensation on the back of my hand, and from the look on Sebastian's face, he was also having that feeling. Our masters were calling us. A moment later, a crashing sound came from the young Earl's office, and the tingling feeling stopped.

Oh, dear. That was never a good sign at all.

…..

Ciel's office was a complete mess. Most of the elegant furniture seemed to be toppled over and splintered from what looked like a rather large and devastating weapon. Both My Lady and the young Earl were also absent from the premises currently. The two of us had used our special connection to briefly search the grounds for the pair, but they were not anywhere on the grounds of the Phantomhive Manor. They appeared to be speedily headed towards town.

"It seems my Master has been kidnapped…again."

"As well as my Mistress. This does not bode well. We must go retrieve them immediately before harm comes to them. Shall I alert the other servants?"

"I shall inform them of their duties while we are away from the manor. They would practically riot if they knew he was gone."

"Smart choice, I suppose. I shall assist you by gathering your silverware while you tend to the servants. I'll order Shadow to stay here to keep an eye on them, as well."

"Thank you kindly, My Princess."

"Must you call me that?"

With a Cheshire cat grin, he was gone in a flash, and I was gone a moment later. Mr. Michaelis and I had much work to do.

…..

After a quick rendezvous outside the manor, we bolted for the city, following our connection to our humans. They were both in the same location, so they were easy to track down without us having to split up.

We found them both somewhere in the more crime-ridden parts of the city as the sun began to make its descent over the horizon, giving the area an even darker and chillier air. They were tied together with rope, back to back with one another, and they both appeared to be very bored. They didn't seem to be worried for their own well-being at all. Waiting for us was their apparent captor, a familiar gender-confused red-haired reaper that was going to get a good thrashing for this latest stunt.

I expected he would pull off this next move, and he did. As soon as the two of us were in sight, Mr. Sutcliffe was already dashing over to Sebastian, heels clacking noisily against the roof, arms outstretched. "Oh, Bassy, you came to see me…!" The butler's response to this behavior was a well-aimed right hook to his face, nearly breaking the grim reaper's glasses, along with his nose. If he had managed that feat, I would have applauded the butler for his excellent punch.

"Grell, why must you keep breaking the rules, knowing you are going to lose your death scythe and be rewarded with more overtime?"

"Oh, Bassy, all of the punishment is worth it if I get to see you!"

"I bet his only regret is that you are not dealing out the punishment, Mr. Michaelis."

"Considering he has kidnapped my Master and a guest in our household, I will have to correct that error. Are you ready for your punishment, Grell?"

Just that last sentence got the strange reaper excited in a very inappropriate manner. "Oh, Bassy~" He giggled in delight and gave Sebastian a star-struck look, despite the fact the VERY pissed off Demon was pulling his gloves off with his teeth and his eyes were glowing pink. That was never a good sign at all. The two children tied up behind him gave us both glares.

"Could you please cut the chatter and come save us, Sakura?"

"Sebastian, enough of the games and come get us. It's chilly out here and Grell is starting to disgust me."

I handed Sebastian a handful of silverware while I pulled my own gloves off. "We'll only be a moment, masters. Do you mind if I assist you, Mr. Michaelis? I've had enough of this reaper's annoying involvement."

He seemed to get mad at that. "Hah! Would you like me to shame you again in front of your Mistress, you harlot? I promise, this time I won't miss." Grell picked up his weapon, previously lying on the rooftop, and revved up the obnoxious-sounding engine, giving me an evil glare as he did so.

Sebastian ignored Grell's threats and turned to me. "It would be my pleasure to have your assistance." He smiled at me and swiped my knives from my pockets, only to hand them to me a moment later. Such a gentleman. Mr. Sutcliffe had to be jealous of the wonderful smile that was directed at me and not him.

Grell glared between the two of us with utter fury. "How dare you! Bassy is MINE!" He charged at us, carelessly swinging his death scythe around, but the two of us easily managed to avoid his rage-induced clumsy attacks. Sebastian countered by throwing a few forks his way while I moved behind him and attacked with one of my knives.

Sebastian's initial attack was blocked by Grell's death scythe, and he narrowly escaped mine. Of course, I hadn't missed completely. I'd be a terrible Saito maid if I couldn't even hit this clumsy target. Now a small portion of Mr. Sutcliffe's long girly hair was at least ten inches shorter than it was before.

He stared at his cut hair, horrified, while I joined Sebastian at his side. "He seems to be a little unfocused this evening, Mr. Michaelis."

"Mr. Sutcliffe's battle strategies immediately go out the window when he is having another one of his jealous fits."

"I believe this battle will end quicker than I thought it would. It shall be too easy to finish off this one."

Grell's eyebrows furrowed as he frowned angrily at me. "Hah, that Demon, getting so close to MY Bassy! I bet he wouldn't be so nice if he knew the truth."

Both Lady Amaya and I glared at Grell. "I have no idea what you are going on about now, Mr. Sutcliffe."

"Oh, you don't, little blueberry? Why don't you tell that little dog that you know more about his recent case than you are letting on?"

Now I was getting pissed off. Lady Amaya was supposed to tell them, not Grell. "I don't know how you know of the case, but rest assured, I'm going to cut your tongue out before the night is over, you annoying woman imposter."

Ciel glanced over at Amaya, a confused look on his face. "What the bloody hell is he talking about, Amaya?"

"He's talking about what we were going to discuss in your office before he so rudely interrupted us."

"What do you know about our case?"

"Can we discuss this later, Ciel? We are still being held captive by a crazy reaper."

"It shall wait, for now. Sebastian, end this, please."

"Sakura, lend him a hand."

Both of us Demon servants turned to our masters and bowed/curtsied.

"Yes, My Lord."

"Yes, My Lady."

At the same time, we rushed Grell, Sebastian going high to take care of his weapon while I went low to attack his legs. With our teamwork, the Demon butler was now holding the death scythe in his hands and he was sprawled onto the roof, both of my knives jammed into his ankles to keep him stuck to the roof. Sebastian had managed to stick him in the wrists with a pair of butter knives.

"Good work, Mr. Michaelis."

"Why, thank you, miss. You did a fine job yourself."

Grell wriggled about and whined while we untied the two humans. "This isn't fair! Bassy is mine, not some harlot's!"

Ciel gave the both of us angered looks before he looked up at Sebastian. "I want to go home. NOW." He was clearly angry at both of us. This was exactly what I was trying to avoid. Despite the Earl's snippy tone, Sebastian picked up the child and headed off of the roof. I myself retrieve my knives before picking up My Lady and following the pair back towards the manor.

…..

**BANG! **Oh dear, at this rate, with all of the tiny hands slamming on Ciel's recently repaired desk, the poor thing was going to break again.

"So, you neglected to tell me you knew who the culprit was all along?!"

"I didn't want you to get involved! I'll have you know his death is MY contract! I will be seeing his end!"

"He has caused countless murders! You let us go on a wild goose chase and caused us hours of pointless research, just to have the knowledge of his deeds and the proof already?!"

"What would you expect me to do, Ciel?! You have yet to tell anyone of YOUR target for your contract! All I see is the pot calling the kettle black!"

"It is my duty as the Queen's Guard Dog to bring him in!"

"You think that any JAIL will hold a man with a Demon under his thumb?! You of ALL people should understand that better than anyone!"

My Lady and the young Earl were going at it while I quietly sat in one of the chairs in the office, thankfully tidied up and repaired with Sebastian's help. We hardly got one foot in the door before Ciel started his tirade and My Lady's short temper lashed out in retaliation. Now, I just wanted the two of them to be silent. I petted the cat in my lap to restrain myself, but I so badly wanted to tell them both to get over it already. At least Sebastian wasn't mad at either of us. As a maid bound by her honor to her Mistress, I couldn't tell them, even if I wanted to, and he understood the situation better than Ciel did. Now both Sebastian and I were suffering through this long and pointless argument performed by our humans like an annoying play gone completely awry.

"Ciel Phantomhive, you are a bloody idiot! Don't you understand?! You have yet to report the ones responsible for your own parent's murder. You should understand better than anyone! He killed my family and destroyed my home! My childhood and innocence were stolen from me, just like you! Why can't you see that?! You've absolutely gone daffy. I apologize if you were inconvenienced, Earl, but we are all entitled to our secrets!" In an angry huff, My Lady left the room and slammed the door of the office behind her.

The Earl just stared after her, dumbfounded that she had just dared to turn his own words against him, call him a hypocrite in her own way, and even insulted him. Not many would be that bold against the Earl Phantomhive, but she must have been feeling rather gutsy today. Either that, or her sharp temper had gotten the better of her this evening and she just didn't give a damn.

He slumped down in his office chair and sighed tiredly. "Damn it…what am I supposed to tell her Majesty?"

Sebastian finally spoke up and placed a hand on his Master's shoulder. "Unfortunately, we must let Lady Amaya and Miss Yukimura handle this one. Are you really going to interfere with her contract, My Lord?"

"No, I suppose not. I know I'd feel rather irritable if someone managed to reach my target before I did. I will have to tell her that the situation will be handled by one of my contacts." His sapphire eyes turned to me. "'And what are you still doing here?"

"Would you like me to leave, young Lord? I shall go immediately."

"Do you mind passing along an apology to your Mistress?"

"It shall be done, My Lord."

He gave me a sharp nod before turning back to his butler to start a discussion. That was my cue to make myself scarce so they could talk privately. I was out of that room before either of them could blink. _What a day this has turned out to be…damn that Grell. I hope that Mr. Spears character gives him enough overtime to last him a century._


	9. His Cat, On Wheels

Chapter 9: His Cat, On Wheels

Soon, our time at the summer home was over, and now it was time for all of us to return to the manor. After their argument, the relationship between My Lady and the Earl were a little rocky, but they had improved. In our case, however, now things had taken a turn for the worse. With their newfound information about Mr. Allen and Mr. Bone, they had decided to pitch in and aid us in finding the two culprits. Unfortunately, not even our combined efforts could pin down his location completely. He was just too elusive. That bloody coward was starting to get on my nerves, and having a short temper didn't help me at all with this.

Ciel and My Lady were no different. Every time we came to the young Lord to give him our report of our lack of success, the scowl on his face seemed to deepen with every word. For the past few days, he'd been caught lost in thought on several occasions. He was thinking deeply about this case. It could possibly be counted as one of his most troubling cases he had ever come across.

Now then, currently, all of the servants were packing up the carriage for our return trip home. We had two carriages, one for the nobles and the head servants, and the second for the rest of the servants. Sebastian and I were busy readying our masters for the return trip. The boys were going to meet us outside when we were finished preparations.

I was aiding My Lady and brushed her soft locks while she was adjusting her dress in the mirror. "Things have become so bothersome, haven't they?"

"My Lady?"

"I preferred to have the Earl uninvolved and blissfully unaware of our situation…I haven't even told him everything in detail. All he knows is that Allen's death is my contract…yet I'm still uncomfortable with him even knowing that much."

"Humans are inclined to their secrets, My Lady. Mr. Sutcliffe should not have spoken up. I will give him a much harsher punishment the next time we cross blades."

"See that you do so. That gender-bending cross-dresser has caused me much stress."

"I apologize for his inconvenience to you, My Lady."

"Let us go. The Earl shouldn't be kept waiting."

"Yes, My Lady."

…..

Later in the day, all of us were going down the road in the carriages. Sebastian was driving ours, and Finnian was driving theirs. I sat across from My Lady and the Earl, quietly listening to their quiet conversation, barely heard above the noise of the horse's hooves and the rumbling of the carriages across the dirt road.

"Do not worry about it, Ciel. He's extremely elusive, but he'll slip up. I have many ways of finding him; I will create a plan eventually to capture that bastard."

While those two continued their chatter, I distinctly heard more hoof sounds and the whinnies of a large pack of horses coming from behind both carriages. A moment later, another pack was coming from directly in front of us.

My eyes narrowed in utter irritation. _Damn it, not these human imbeciles again. Attacking a carriage, how rude. I'd best go warn Sebastian, if he hasn't spotted them already._

"I hate to interrupt your discussion, My Lady, but we have a few unwelcome guests joining our trip. I suggest the both of you hold on to something. Things are about to get a little bumpy. My apologies in advance for the inconvenience." I scooped Shadow up into my arms and swung the carriage door open before I climbed onto the roof and joined Sebastian on the coachman's bench. The butler had already sped up the carriage a great deal, and the one behind us was catching up to our pace.

"Ah, so you heard them coming as well?"

"Has to be at least ten in each group, all on horseback. How would you suggest we handle this situation?"

"The servants can easily handle the bandits in the rear. I suppose we'll have to take the front."

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Michaelis. If the servants don't look forward, Shadow can help clear the path ahead of us easily. I don't have any long range weapons on me, sadly, so I will have to accompany her."

"Would you mind aiding me for a moment before you set out? I must give the servants their orders, so somebody must take the reins for a moment."

"I will gladly take care of it. You may go." I tossed Shadow over the front of the carriage, where she transformed and sped off to meet our attackers head on. Then I proceeded to take the reins while he moved to the second carriage. Now I had to focus on steering the carriage while the bandits in the front came into view, all readying their rifles. Just brilliant, more guns. I hoped that this contraption was in pristine condition to dodge a few bullets.

Thankfully, Shadow had already taken town at least two of the riders, most likely eaten, horse and all, but the presence of the Nightmare had not affected them in the least. They were quite focused on their target. _They were most likely hired by Mr. Bone and forewarned of several things. I suppose he's getting desperate, the coward. Why won't he just do the work himself? I've never met a lazier Demon._

Behind me, I heard gunshots going off, some from our attackers, some from the carriage. I stole a glance backwards to find that now Mei-Rin and Bardroy were standing on the roof of the carriage, both returning fire at our enemies. The red-headed maid now had her glasses off, and she was using a pair of hand guns to shoot, while the cook had chosen a rifle instead. Finnian was still driving, but I spotted him once in a while breaking off a rather large tree branch from a nearby tree and slinging it over his shoulder behind the carriage. How Mei-Rin and Bard managed to duck each time left me puzzled.

Sebastian returned to his seat and I handed him the reigns once again. "She's taken care of a few of them, but she's having trouble avoiding the rifles, so she hasn't taken care of them all."

"Perhaps we should lend her a hand? I'm a little busy at the moment, but I'll let you use these to take care of them." He freed one of his hands to dig into his tailcoat and procure a large handful of silverware. I nodded to him, giving him a devilish grin, and accepted the spotless gleaming weapons. Now this, I was going to enjoy.

I let a knife fly from my hand and it hit one of the men in his left eye, causing the human to reel back in surprise and fall right off of his horse. Since he was in the front and the men were closely packed together, you can imagine how trampled his body was after this fight. Another stabbed a man in his neck, and his dead body flopped from his beast in the same manner as the previous gentleman.

My fun was short-lived as what looked like bright little lights leapt onto the side of the carriage and broke through the windows. Already, the temperature inside the carriage was increasing and My Lady started screaming in fright.

"Damn it, he sent fire imps!" I turned to the Demon butler beside me. "Sebastian, abandon the carriage and go on ahead! I'll get the masters out!" That was the first time I had called him by his first name, or made a demand of him, but nevertheless, he nodded and leapt off of the bench to free the horses while I clambered onto the roof.

Those small little fireball monsters were usually servants to Demons, so it was no surprise he had sent some with the humans. They alone wouldn't be able to do the trick, obviously. But, neither were these annoying things for Demons of our power. Still, I had to act quickly. With that many inside of the carriage, it would go up in flames in a matter of only seconds. I needed to be quick to get the humans out of harm's way. Hopefully Finnian wouldn't panic when their carriage caught up and he'd go around us like a good little servant.

I slipped off the edge of the roof of the carriage, grabbed the ends with my hands, and swung my feet into the door, kicking it in as I landed inside the carriage, hell flames bursting out of the doorway and licking at my skin and clothes at the rush of oxygen-rich air that entered. The flames had already consumed the majority of the inside of the carriage. The little monsters were already scurrying towards the humans who had backed themselves into the only fire-free corner to my left, with Ciel standing protectively in front of My Lady. It seemed he had been aiming to get to the door as well.

The nearest imp was sent flying with a single kick from my boot. "Shall we get going, young Masters? This is no place to play around when there are pests about." I wrapped my arms around both of them and tugged them close to me, shielding them from the evil flames, before I leapt out of the doorway and landed safely on the side of the road.

We weren't out of the woods yet, of course. The flaming devils abandoned the flaming carriage as it rolled down the road uncontrollably and went after us. I released the children and grabbed the silverware in my pocket all in one swift movement. As I spun around to face them, I chucked the utensils and killed four of them that had been in mid-jump, flying towards me. They all vanished in a spurt of flames, removing any trace of their existence. I only had the other four left to worry about now, though they were running away in the direction of were Sebastian, Shadow, and the other attackers should be. Apparently I'd scared the wits out of them.

"Pardon me, Masters, but I must get rid of these little pests. I humbly request that you stay here until the other carriage arrives to retrieve you." Both of them had managed to come out completely unscathed, thanks to me. I was the only one slightly charred from our quick exit, so I had no need to worry over them a second longer. Now, I had to help Sebastian remove the rest of the threats.

Before either of them could say anything, I was already running down the road and chasing the imps at impossible speeds. The slower two were easily cut down, and I finished off the other two as I neared Sebastian's battlefield. The fight was basically over, with no evidence left behind, mostly thanks to Shadow's insatiable taste for horses and sinners.

As I approached, I flung the last piece of silverware I had on my person at a lone fire imp that had tried jumping up and attacking Sebastian from behind. "It seems you missed one, Mr. Michaelis."

He glanced back at the vanishing imp before his gaze returned to me. "You have excellent aim, miss."

I was silently glad my side bangs and hair were covering up the burn marks that most likely were marring my face, neck and arms at the moment. "What kind of Saito maid would I be if I couldn't at least do that?" Shadow transformed once again into her more innocent form and rubbed up against my leg. "You silly thing. I hope at least you enjoyed yourself. Did you get your fill?" She responded to me with only a purr.

"Sebastian, Miss Sakura, are you okay?! What happened?" Ah, there they were. The servant's carriage was just now arriving at the spotless scene, and the gardener driving it was waving at us and grinning. I sensed that along the way they had picked up our contracts, for I could feel My Lady's presence in the carriage. He parked it a few feet away from us and hopped down from the coachman's seat before jogging over to us. As the carriage halted, Bardroy and Mei-Rin rushed out from inside of the carriage.

"The bandits shot one of the wheels of the other carriage and damaged it. It ran off the road, and we were forced to abandon it." As usual, Sebastian's quick thinking spared the other servants the truth that they were not to know. The three seemed relieved that everyone had made it out unscathed. Well, almost everyone, anyway.

"We can come back fer it later. Ye can ride with us! The Master and Lady Amaya are already waitin' fer us." Bardroy spoke to us in his usual slurred fashion and headed back into the carriage, Mei-Rin quickly following.

Finnian was about to hop back into the driver's seat when Sebastian stopped him. "I'll be driving us home, Finnian, join the others in the carriage, please." He nodded and did as he was told.

After the Demon had taken his seat, I hopped up and joined him with my cat in my arms. "Let's get out of here before we attract more unwanted attention."

"I couldn't agree more with you, miss." Sebastian cracked the reins and we were off again towards home. I was very eager to get home before anyone noticed my condition. What rotten luck for the flames to have been created from demonic beings. These burns would take longer to heal than it would usually take me.

…..

Back at the Phantomhive Manor, everyone was getting settled in after our dramatic day. I'd unpacked My Lady's belongings while she ate dinner and put her to bed soon after. Now, I was in the servant's quarters in my own room, unpacking the few things I had. The uncomfortable burning and stinging of those blasted burns had made my work almost a whole minute slower than usual, and it irritated me.

Not even a second after I stowed away my suitcase, I heard the familiar noise of my door clicking shut. I had my back to the door, so I didn't actually know who it was, but I opened my mouth anyway. "Mei-Rin, I've told you a million times that you can't come barging into my room all the time, you have to knock first." Since Mei-Rin used to be the only female in the entire manor, she liked to sneak into my room sometimes to have a chit-chat with me. She enjoyed my company, just because she finally had another female to talk to. I should have realized if it was Mei-Rin, she would have made a lot more noise.

"If you don't mind having the other servants spotting me knocking at your door when I come in, I shall do so next time I decide to pay you a visit." I spun around quickly and raised an eyebrow at the dark-haired butler.

"Mr. Michaelis, what on earth are you doing in my room? It's impolite for an unmarried man and woman to be in a bedroom-" I was cut off when his right hand grabbed my left and pulled the appendage closer towards him. In the dim candlelight, the burns etched across pale skin were still visible. His other hand came around and thin fingers pulled my glove off, showing the other tiny patches of blackened, burned skin on the hand.

"My, my, you do seem to make a mess of yourself quite often." He made a small tsk noise as he rotated my arm to get a good look at it. "Where else were you burned?"

"Do not worry over such small things; they'll be gone by morning. At least it was me and it wasn't either of our masters. Besides, it doesn't even hurt." I tried to pull my arm away from him, but he had a firm, but gentle, grip on my elbow and wrist.

"It isn't becoming of a lady to lie. You know as well as I do that these kind of burns last longer than that, especially at the rate you heal. I also have noticed your discomfort since we left the little scene of the scuffle. Something will have to be done about this, before the other servants notice."

I already had a pretty good guess at what he was going to do. "Don't even think about it. I'll do it myself. D-Don't you have a human to put to bed or something?" My face was already flushing in embarrassment and I was starting to stutter at the very thought of him doing such a thing. Hopefully, he hadn't put Ciel to bed yet and he'd leave me alone.

"The young Master is already in bed, and the other servants are doing a few last minute chores before they return to bed." A playful smirk seemed to cross his features as he brought my hand towards his face.

My face grew stern. "Sebastian, don't."

His grin seemed to only broaden as I spoke his name. "That's the second time you have called me by my first name today, My Princess. I would prefer it if you would continue to do so."

I let a cat-like growl escape my throat and tried to pull away from him, but he ignored my warning and wrapped his free arm around me and dragged me towards him. Now I was crushed against his chest. This was just brilliant. There was no way in hell I'd let him try that on me.

With one last attempt at freedom, I used my free arm to push myself away from him and spun around him to get to the bedroom door, but he was faster than I anticipated. He turned on his heel and wrapped an arm around my left arm and waist while his right hand snatched mine and pulled me closer to him. Now I was pinned to his chest, facing away from him.

I grabbed at his left arm with my own to try to peel him off, but he was physically stronger than I am. I growled again as he leaned his face in to my arm and grabbed the short sleeve with his teeth. He pulled the soft fabric up until my shoulder was exposed.

"Sebastian, I'm warning you! Let me go, or else…"

"Or else what?" He chuckled and kissed my shoulder with those velvety soft lips of his.

"You may be stronger than me, but I will have no objection to pummeling you for this."

"Just humor me for a little while, My Princess. I can't have you walking around in this condition, let alone doing house work." I glanced over at him and gave him a warning glare, but he paid no attention to me as his moist tongue slipped out of his mouth and licked one of the burns on my shoulder. For a second, the burn stung even more, but then it felt like someone had put a bag of ice over it. This was considered improper behavior in this world, but in our world, this was common among Demon friends or couples to aid in particularly nasty wounds, which were hard for us to get in the first place. No human weapon could ever cause us lasting damage, but things like fire imp burns did.

Sebastian proceeded to slowly drag his tongue across my burned skin, and I squirmed at the alien, but extremely pleasant, sensation. This is probably the reddest my face had ever become since I was born, even in my first life. "S-Sebastian, stop it!"

He ignored me as he pulled my arm closer to reach my elbow. My knees were already getting weak and my mind a bit fuzzy, but still, I persisted. "W-what if someone comes in? Just s-stop it already!"

"I made sure to lock the door. We won't be disturbed." The pause to speak to me only lasted for a moment before he started his work again. I wriggled even more, getting a bit more desperate to get away from him. There was no way I was going to let him reach my wrist! That was the one place he definitely was NOT to touch!

Still, he managed it. That delicious pink tongue licked delicately at my wrist, and I couldn't hold back the tiny moan that managed to escape. Damn it, of all places, why did my arms and neck have to get burned?

"Did I hit a tender spot, My Princess?" I could feel the smirk on his lips as he kissed the inside of my wrist and turned my arm back over to start on the back of my hand. I growled, breathlessly and weakly, at him. Damn this sexy man and his magic tongue.

When he finished with my right arm, he switched sides and held my torso and right arm in his right and held my left wrist with his left. By the time he reached my left wrist, I had given up struggling and he was supporting most of my weight. If he let me go now, I probably would have fallen down. Hah, a Demon, falling down? A laughable idea, yes, but Demons still have a few human-like traits, and that includes getting a little weak in the knees when a man is practically seducing you unintentionally. Or intentionally. I couldn't tell which.

Sebastian finished with my left arm and let out a low laugh right next to my ear. "Anywhere else?"

I took a second to catch my breath and gave him a stern look. "No, nowhere else, now let me go."

He smirked again, and quicker than I could follow, I somehow found myself with my back pinned to the wall and Sebastian was holding my arms, now healing rapidly thanks to his persistent licking, above my head at the wrists with one hand. The other was gently pushing back my side bangs on the right side of my face to reveal the blackened burns along the right side my neck and a few tiny patches going up my cheek. I could hear his laugh as he planted a kiss on my cheek.

"As I said before, lying is not very becoming of a lady." Again, I felt his warm tongue on my skin, this time on my cheek. I tried to pull away from him, but his body was crushing mine against the wall.

"S-Sebastian…s-stop…please…" I was practically begging at this point, but the stubborn Demon wasn't listening to me at all. He proceeded to lick the tiny burns on my cheek before his tongue traveled down to my neck.

Now I definitely couldn't take it anymore. I let out a loud moan and bit my lower lip with my fangs roughly. If anybody found out about this, I was going to beat him into a bloody pulp. This damn Demon had overpowered me so easily. It was bloody annoying.

The butler brought his lips to my ear. "Are you enjoying yourself?" His warm breath ghosting past my ear just made it worse. I could only moan in response as he returned to his work.

Finally, he was done. As soon as he stopped licking me, I took in several shaky breaths of air, though of course I don't need to breathe. Demons don't need to, but we still subconsciously breathe. Not only is it necessary to keep up appearances around humans, but it's just out of habit for the ones that were born as human. Even natural-born Demons still do it. It's just a behavior ingrained into our genetic make-up.

I THOUGHT Sebastian was done, but apparently he wasn't. No sooner had I relaxed a bit, and then I felt his sharp teeth nibbling at the soft skin of my neck. Now that drove me nuts. I squirmed violently in his grip at the sudden sensation. "Damn it… S-Sebastian… stop it… already…!" I was gasping for air again as he practically purred against my skin.

He spent several minutes, kissing and nibbling and sucking the freshly healed skin before he trailed kisses up my neck and over my cheek, until at last he pulled away from me. He gazed at me with a look that seemed to be a mix of lust and something else I couldn't identify. His emotions were a bit of a jumbled mess at the moment, so it was hard for me to decipher exactly what he was thinking.

Suddenly, his face slowly inched towards mine. Without thinking, I pulled my face up to meet his, but in a split second, he was gone. I sank to my knees and leaned against the wall, catching my breath. What the hell had gotten into that Demon? I know that a man is still a man, but for someone that handsome, especially what our world calls a pure-blood Demon, one that was born naturally, to find ME attractive? Hah. A laughable joke. He must have hit his head sometime today in the fight.

I glanced across the room towards the floor-length mirror standing in the corner. I looked a total mess. My hair was slightly disheveled, my skin was flushed the reddest I'd ever seen it, I was panting uncontrollably, and I swear I could spy a hickey or two forming on my neck thanks to his fangs. Those I would have to cover up if I were to face everyone tomorrow.

What in the hell was he thinking?!


	10. His Cat, Jealousy

Chapter 10: His Cat, Jealousy

Things between Sebastian and I got a little awkward after that incident over the next few days. Besides moments where I **had** to be near him, I tried to stay away from him as much as possible, so he wouldn't hear my black Demon heart beating faster than usual in my virtually hollow chest.

Before we knew it, three months had passed of our six month trip. The warm summer climate had rapidly passed by and made way for the fall. The weather was chillier, but not to an uncomfortable point. Fall had to be my second favorite time of year. Spring, obviously, is my favorite, due to the flowers springing to life and giving the world a sense of rebirth. But, now, every living thing was busy preparing for the cold months ahead of them, including the mortals of this world.

My Lady and I were currently in her bedroom, and I was brushing her delicate hair with her favorite comb while she read today's newspaper. "He hasn't hit any more targets in almost a week. I'm starting to get worried he's fled the country."

"I shall look into the matter after breakfast."

"Have you forgotten what day it is? It's the first day of fall. Don't you suppose that she will be coming to pay us a visit, as she does every year?"

"Unfortunately, I suppose she is going to drop by sometime today. She loves to pester me, especially when I have my hands full. Shall we warn our gracious hosts of the future intruder?"

"That would be best. I'm going down to breakfast, and I shall speak of the matter with Ciel during the meal." My Lady abruptly closed the newspaper and set it down on top of the vanity before he stood and left the room. I set her comb in its' proper place on her nightstand and silently followed her, as I always did.

When we arrived in the dining room, Ciel stood and pulled out a chair for My Lady, as he always did, before he returned to his own seat. Sebastian had already graciously served breakfast, and as soon as Ciel started eating, so did My Lady. The conversation consisted with small talk, until at last Lady Amaya cleared her throat, a sign that what she had to say must be thoroughly paid attention to. Now that she had everyone's undivided attention, she glanced at Ciel and then at the human servants. Obviously, this was not a topic for their ears.

He took the hint and glanced at the three. "Shouldn't you three be occupying Pluto right about now? He has yet to go on his morning walk, as you blatantly forgot."

The three servants seemed to all stretch looks of realization across their faces while Tanaka just sat as he usually did and drank his tea. One by one, they all vanished, Finnian grabbing Tanaka by the back of his shirt and yanking him along behind.

"Good, now that they have left the room, I can speak freely on this matter. Sometime today, we're going to have a visitor, and a rather troublesome one, on our hands."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Sakura, will you kindly enlighten the young Lord and his butler?"

"As you wish, My Lady. You see, around this time of year, my mentor likes to drop in and see if I am well. At least, that is what she says is her reason. Her true reason is to drive me absolutely daffy."

"Your… mentor?" Now Ciel was quite confused, but that was understandable, for a human. He knew nothing of our ways. Lady Amaya knew bits and pieces, but not everything.

"Yes, my mentor, the Demon that raised me after I became one myself."

"Wouldn't Sebastian have a mentor then?"

The black-haired butler shook his head. "Mentors are only for the members of our kind that weren't born as Demons."

One of Ciel's perfectly shaped eyebrows raised as he gazed at me. "You weren't always a Demon?"

"No, I was not. I am not a Demon of pure blood, like Mr. Michaelis. I was once like you, a human."

"So, she does this every year?"

"Unfortunately. She should be arriving any minute now. I advise you to keep the servants away from her. She tends to make quite the flashy entrance."

"Sebastian, find something to keep the idiots occupied while our guest is here."

"Yes, My Lord." The butler left the room while the two masters of the house continued to eat their breakfast. I waited until they were finished before I tidied up the mess, washed the dishes, and then returned to my quarters. Shiyonin would complain if I was less than perfect, so I was just going to do a quick double-check to make sure I was proper.

…..

"_KU-SO!_" I swore rather loudly in Japanese as I stared at myself in the mirror, mortified. Even after three days, the blasted hickeys that Sebastian left were still there. Thanks to his Demon fangs, it was taking about the same amount of time for them to disappear as regular human hickeys would on other humans. They had faded considerably, yes, but with my ghostly pale skin and sight beyond any human perfection, I could still see the faint traces of his teeth left behind. For the first day, I'd worn a dress with a high collar to hide it from My Lady and the other humans, and by the second day, their poor eyes were unable to see them. But, with my mentor being a Demon, and having better eyesight than myself, she would easily notice these blemishes. I had to do something about this. If she saw this, she'd make my world a living hell.

"It seems you have quite the predicament, My Princess." I jumped, startled at the face that I could see peeking over my shoulder from the mirror. Once I realized it was just Sebastian, being a stealthy little pain in my tail, I glowered at him, despite the flush coming to my cheeks.

"Stop calling me that, and stop teasing me. It's your fault that I'm having this problem! I'm just going to have to change my look today." I sighed and yanked the black ribbon out of my hair. The only way to hide the marks would be to cover it up with my hair.

I reached over to my dresser to grab the hairbrush resting there, but another pair of gloved hands beat me to it. I spun around and glared at the butler, my eyes probably flashing bright red as they usually did when I became pissed off. "Michaelis, give me my hairbrush."

He frowned. "I thought we moved past the formalities." Then, he sighed. "I suppose we will work on that later. We have other important matters to worry about. May I style your hair today, as an apology? We can't have your mentor having a poor opinion of either of us, now can we?"

"You don't even know if she's going to figure out those are your teeth marks."

"Do you really think Bardroy or Finnian could leave a mark on a Demon?"

"…I suppose not."

"Will you let me do your hair today? Please?" Once again, he gave me that damn innocent face. Just by looking at it, my anger was quickly subsiding. WHY DID HE HAVE TO MAKE SUCH AN ADORABLE FACE?! Even among Demons, this man could be considered a god.

After having a quick argument with myself, I sighed. "All right, but only for today. You owe me that much for causing me all of this trouble."

He smiled pleasantly at me as he took the ribbon from my hand and started to gently comb my long hair as we stood in front of the mirror and I carefully watched him. He seemed to be humming a tune as he worked, taking the time to slowly get out any tangles instead of just tearing the brush through my hair in a rush for time.

When the brushing was done, he moved to the front of me and draped my long hair over my right shoulder. After gathering the hair up in one hand, he tied it all together into a ponytail with the ribbon. He adjusted the bow once or twice until it sat just right. Satisfied with his handiwork, he took a step back and smiled at me. "Lovely."

_Anything but, Sebastian, trust me. Lady Shiyonin doesn't care what I look like, she absolutely hates my hair. She can be a nice woman at times, but she always insulted the way my hair looks because it's so different from everyone else. If she makes one quip about my hair color, Shadow is going to find her favorite hair accessory and chew it to bits again._

Sebastian seemed to sense that I was thinking about something unpleasant. "Is it not to your liking, My Princess?"

I quickly glanced up at him and shook my head. "No, it looks wonderful, Sebastian. A change of pace is nice once in a while."

His smile broadened even more at the sound of his name. "Thank you. I take quite a bit of pride in my work. Now, when do you expect her to arrive?"

"She does as she pleases. She could "pop in" at any moment." I sighed and headed for my bedroom door. "I suggest you take another way out of my room to avoid being spotted."

Of course, the clever boy had already beaten me to the punch. As I turned around to suggest leaving through the window, he was already gone without a trace. I may be fast, but I'm only a cat. Ravens are much faster.

…..

It was half past ten when she arrived. Lady Amaya and Lord Ciel were playing a rather close game of chess and talking about work, like they usually did during one of her lessons, and Sebastian and I stood behind their chairs, intently watching the game. Shadow was curled up by the fireplace, taking a light mid-morning nap.

As I predicted, she made a rather flashy and noisy entrance. One minute, all was peaceful and quiet. The next, a black portal opened up on the wall behind me, and she gracefully stepped out of it. The black crow-feather fan in her hand was snapped shut, and the portal was gone.

Lady Amaya and I were used to her usual entrance, Shadow continued her nap, and Sebastian could care less, but Ciel was quite startled at her appearance and knocked over his king.

"It appears you forfeited the match, Ciel. I win."

"W-What?! That's not fair; I knocked it over on accident!"

"Rules are rules, Phantomhive."

Ciel glowered at the Demon woman that just entered the room and practically glided across the floor towards the chess board to see how the game had been going. "I suppose this is your mentor?"

"Yes, it is."

Her feminine, womanly voice danced across the air as her scarlet eyes turned to me and she giggled. "Why, you told everyone I was coming? I'm so flattered, dear."

"Allow me to introduce my mentor, Lady Shiyonin." If you thought I was a ghost, I pale in comparison to her. Literally. Her face was as white as a blank canvas. The completely black kimono she was wearing and her long dark hair, pulled up into a bun with onyx chopsticks, made her even more ghostly. The way she moved so gracefully and glided like a phantom added to that appearance.

She gave everyone a proper bow and clasped her hands together when she spotted Sebastian, the black fingernails and black Faustian mark clashing with her skin tone. "My, my, we have not one, but two Demon servants in this household? This is quite interesting, indeed. I must say, you've found yourself the most interesting contract yet. How is your little mission going, by the way, dear?"

"It is progressing, Lady Shiyonin."

"Why didn't you tell me you were living in the same house as a butler as delicious as this? I would have come for a visit sooner." She gave Sebastian one of her alluring glances, one that he surprisingly seemed to be immune to. This was indeed a first.

"Thank you for the compliment, miss." He gave her his usual smile and crossed his arm over his chest, bowing politely, but that smile lacked the warmth it usually held when he smiled at me.

I, for one, already wished that she would leave. Her obvious flirting was becoming a true annoyance. I should be used to it by now, as Lady Shiyonin would flaunt her feathers for any handsome Demon she passed by, but this time irritated me in particular.

My mentor turned to the children and smirked with her full blood-red lips at Ciel's irritated face as he glared at the chess board. "My, getting upset over a game? How childish. You must be no older than my dear apprentice's little human. Speaking of, how are you, dear?" She turned to Lady Amaya, ignoring any formalities, and smiled one of her false smiles.

"I'm well, thank you, Lady Shiyonin." Though she showed My Lady no respect, she was still formal with her. How admirable for My Lady to act so grown up.

Now that her curiosity was sated, the Demon woman turned to me once again. "I love what you've done with your hair. Granted, your sense of style hasn't changed, but at least you are mixing things up a bit. Though, I do wish you'd do something with that awful hair color. Can't you at least wear a wig? You stick out dreadfully, in any room. How many times do I have to tell you, my child, standing out in such a fashion just simply won't do?" She stepped closer to me and picked up the ponytail for a second before rolling her eyes in disgust and dropping it again like it was some sort of disease.

I kept up my charming and happy façade, while on the inside I wanted to rip her black heart out. _I'll order Shadow later to steal her chopsticks and destroy them. _"I will take care of it soon, Lady Shiyonin. You know how busy things can be with a contract to care for." I could have sworn I felt someone in the room flash a spike of anger, but it quickly vanished before I could confirm which Demon it was. Both currently had their guard up, and the humans were just ignoring us and starting another game of chess.

"Then see that it's done when you finally finish his one. Honestly, if it were me, that bastard would be six feet under in less than a week, and I'd have a full belly." With a flick of her wrist, she flipped her fan open and fanned herself, giving me a look of utter disappointment. "You never learn, my dear."

Silence filled the room as I had a stare-down with my mentor. A few minutes passed, and she broke eye contact with me to glance about the room. "It's quite rude that you haven't even offered to give me a tour of this lovely manor. I haven't been in a manor in this century yet, I'd love to see what humans consider high class."

"As you wish, Lady Shiyonin. If you'll follow me." I nodded to her and headed out of the parlor to give her the tour. If I didn't humor her, she'd just throw a fit and insult me again for being an impolite and ungrateful apprentice.

"Oh, can the delicious butler come along? I know you'll just drone on and on, I need some proper company." She glanced over at Ciel, who wasn't really paying attention to any of us. He just waved his hand dismissively as he went back to focusing on his chess game.

With a sigh, I led the way, and Lady Shiyonin walked slowly behind me to glide next to Sebastian and chat with him. Of course, she was mostly asking him about himself and what he'd been up to lately. I glanced back once in a while to notice her usual eyelash-batting, hair-flipping, arm-clinging, seductive-grinning signs of obvious flirting. There are some days that I just want to tear her crimson eyes out of their sockets. Today would be one of those days. She was getting on my last nerve.

Unfortunately, I could do nothing about it. To disobey or harm your mentor meant that he/she had the right to punish you in whichever manner they deemed fit. Most of the time, apprentices get punished by being beaten or having to do some menial chore, but some mentors were cruel enough to take our hard-earned contracts away from us. We'd do the work, and at the end of the contract, they'd get the soul instead, not us.

So, I grit my fangs and just dealt with her presence. At the end of the tour, she was hanging on Sebastian's arm flirtatiously and smirking at me, obviously seeing right through my mask of calm and enjoying how much I was getting pissed off at her.

"Well, this has been quite fun, but I think I should be moving on. There's much work for me to do."

"It was a pleasure having you here, Lady Shiyonin." I bowed to my mentor, glad that she was finally leaving.

Of course, it was too good to be true that she was going to leave quietly. I saw her hand only a moment too late as she reached out and snatched the ribbon from my hair, letting the long locks loose.

"You know better than to hide anything from me. You never put your hair up unless your Mistress or I demand you to. You hide that face of yours like a coward. So, my little doll is becoming less like a child's toy and more like a grown woman. It's about time, child." She smirked as I stood up in horror and glared at her.

"Give that back." That ribbon just so happened to be the last thing I had from a friend of mine from my human life. That was one of the rare items that I cherished, and she knew it. She only laughed and tossed the ribbon up in the air, letting it vanish without a trace.

"Do not make demands of your mentor. I could punish you for that little smart mouth of yours, but I might let you slide. You know how I enjoy that look of anger in your eyes when you just let me walk all over you. It's quite pathetic, really. You shouldn't take that treatment from everyone, yet you just let everyone use you like a rug."

"Where the bloody hell did you hide it?!"

"Last warning."

Screw the rules. It was payback time. She wanted me to fight back? She was going to get that fight. Already I was pulling my cake knives out of my hidden pockets. In a split second she vanished through another one of those damn portals of hers, probably to take the fight outside. All right then, it was just going to have to be that way.

The Demon butler beside me gave me a warning look, as if to tell me to avoid this petty fight, but I ignored him and darted outside. "Just stay in here with the masters!"

She was waiting for me, a bored look on her face as she played around with her fan. "Are you sure you want to attack your mentor? There's going to be dire consequences for your actions."

"Lady Shiyonin, at this point, I don't give a damn. You want me to stop letting people walk all over me? Then I'll start with you."

I charged at her, but she was ready for my attack. In one swift movement, she threw a silver feather shaped knife-like weapon at me, which happened to be her weapon of choice. I darted out of the way of the flying dagger and attacked her, tearing one of the sleeves of her kimono when I missed.

The Demon woman was gone in a split second, vanishing through one of her portals. I had a feeling she was trying to sneak up behind me, so instead of turning around like only an idiot would do, I moved away from where I had been standing. I would have gotten away from her attack, too, if it wasn't for my damn hair.

Shiyonin appeared behind me and grabbed me by the hair, preventing me from running any further, while her free hand jabbed one of those daggers into the back of my neck. A searing pain spread from that small spot to the rest of my body, and I fell, face-first, onto the pavement of the driveway.

"_T-Teme_…" I should have expected this. Shiyonin loved to soak one or two of her damn daggers with holy water, in case she ran into a difficult opponent. She always used this trick to strike the back of the neck and completely paralyze any Demon. We still have the same anatomy as humans, so striking our spinal cord with holy water would always do the trick. Granted, there would be no permanent damage, but it left us at the mercy of our opponents.

"Once again, you've lost. Now, what punishment should I bestow upon you…? You ripped my favorite kimono, so obviously I'm going to have to beat you within an inch of your life. Maybe I should have brought more holy water! You could have a lovely bath in that. Wouldn't that be just delightful?" I felt one of her boot-clad feet kick my side roughly.

Lady Shiyonin then pulled me to my feet by my hair, glaring at me. "You are such an annoying pest sometimes. I really need to put you in your place much more often. You've been away from home so long; you've forgotten the rules, haven't you? Don't worry, we'll fix that." I'd be glaring at her, if I could control the movement of my eyelids and face muscles. My eyes were only half-open and my face set to an unemotional gaze.

"I suggest you unhand the young lady, before I really get angry. There may be rules against her physically harming you, but no such rule applies to me." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Sebastian, with his tailcoat off, coming out the front door, pulling his glove off with his teeth to reveal his Faustian mark. His eyes were also dangerously glowing the usual shade of pink. He was indeed quite pissed off.

"You want to try fighting ME? Hah. All right, then. Let's see if you can fight as good as you look." A smirk crossed her features as she carelessly released my hair and I flopped to the ground on my side like a doll. Sebastian was already charging into battle, but as my back was turned to the fight, I couldn't see what was going on.

Minutes passed as slow as hours. I could only hear their footsteps and the clanging of silver as they fought each other all across the front yard and driveway. Eventually, the fight was over, indicated by only one pair of footsteps now, coming towards me. Panic gripped a cold hand over my dark heart. Hopefully, it was Sebastian that had triumphed.

I got my answer when I heard a masculine sigh from behind me and a pair of arms scooped me up. My whole body was limp and my head was resting on his shoulder as he carried me back into the manor, bridal-style. "That was extremely foolish of you, My Princess."

He kept walking towards the servant's quarters as I could do nothing but sit there helplessly. Unexpectedly, we didn't go to my room, but to his room. Right now, I really wasn't in the mood to complain. It wasn't like I had much of a choice in the matter, either.

Sebastian's room was just as nicely furnished as any of the guest rooms in the house, with a big comfortable king-size bed and lots of nice furniture. Lucky him! My room was nice, but I didn't get a big comfy bed. I liked a lot of space when I slept; don't get the wrong idea about me. He proceeded to set me down on this bed, face-down, so now I couldn't see anything but the large black comforter spread across the white sheet-covered mattress.

"Now, let's take care of this, shall we?" I felt my hair being pulled away from my neck and he sighed. "Smells like holy water. I can't heal it until I rinse all of it off… what a mess, your blood even got into your hair…There's nothing to be done about it, and you will just have to your hair and neck washed."

Once again, I was being picked up and hauled into Sebastian's bathroom. Apparently, he had his own bathroom, too. I was forced to lean over the tub so he could do his work.

He started with my neck first, gently rubbing the entire back of my neck clean with a washcloth. It stung when water got into the wound, but he couldn't just take out the damn dagger yet, especially bare-handed. He'd just get the burning substance on himself and make everything worse. He had to rinse it off anyway, so it was better to just leave it in.

Then he moved on to my hair. I had to admit, I enjoyed this. It's a known fact that females love their hair brushed and washed by other people, and Demon females were no exception. It felt good to feel his fingers rubbing soap all through my hair and over my scalp. Was there anything that Sebastian couldn't do perfectly? If I was human, I probably would have fallen asleep the relaxing feel of his hands running through my hair.

When all of that was done, he towel-dried and brushed the blue strands, all the while, I was sitting in his lap. To my surprise, he managed to re-style my hair how he had done it before, and he tied it up with the ribbon I had lost. Somehow, he must have found it.

Next thing I know, I felt a sharp pain as his quick fingers yanked the dagger out of the back of my neck, and I slowly started gaining mobility. Of course I let out a small cry of surprise and pain before I limply slapped my hand over the wound, freshly bleeding again on my fingers.

"You could at least warn me before you do that!"

"Move your hand…"

"It's all right, stop worrying over it."

He sighed and gently pried my weak fingers away from my neck and gave the bleeding cut a few gentle licks before he mischievously licked the blood off of my hand.

"S-Sebastian, stop doing that!"

"Well, you can't do it yourself, now can you?" It's not that I can't reach that spot; it's that only pure-blood Demons have the healing saliva. I was stuck with old-fashioned bandaging.

"I suppose not, but it'll heal on its own."

"You are indeed a stubborn one, My Princess." He laughed and planted a soft kiss on my forehead. "Are you feeling well now?"

"I am, thank you, Sebastian. Are you all right? That was stupid of you to jump into my fight."

"Did you not hear what she was planning to do with you?"

"…And I would have deserved it for losing my temper."

"Maybe you wouldn't lose your temper if you weren't stuck with that atrocity as a mentor." He rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Now, would you mind getting up, please, it is almost time to prepare dinner."

"What about lunch?"

"That was prepared while you were having your little fight."

"Good, I was hoping my actions had not caused My Lady to go hungry…"

"Now, about you sitting on me…? Or you can stay right here, if you wish." That mischievous look crossed his face and I glared, swatting him on the back of the shoulder.

"Sebastian, must you be such a…" I paused when I brought my hand to point accusingly at him when I spotted the red liquid blotches on my hand. The back of his left shoulder appeared to be bleeding.

Abruptly I stood and grabbed his arm to drag him to his feet. "Take off your vest and shirt, right now."

"Pardon?"

"You do realize you are bleeding?"

"I am well aware."

"Now who's being the stubborn one? Off with it, now. You don't know if she hit you with one that had holy water on it."

"She did."

"…And you are just ignoring it? Blimey, you are an idiot."

"Might I remind you I heal faster than you?"

"I don't think I really give a damn. Humor me."

He sighed, but he removed his tie and pulled off his vest and the shirt underneath. I spun him around to inspect the gash on the back of his shoulder.

"Well, that's not too bad, but I'm not just going to leave it there to bleed everywhere." I grabbed a nearby cloth and soaked it in the leftover bath water before carefully washing the cut. The Demon butler stayed silent while I worked, so I started the conversation to avoid thinking about the fact that I was standing behind Sebastian with his shirt off, and yes, he did look absolutely gorgeous. He was mostly thin, but he had a sliver of muscle hiding underneath all of those black clothes, just the way I liked my men.

"So, what happened? I clearly couldn't see the fight."

"Lady Shiyonin eventually escaped when I overpowered her."

"My mentor is not one to let this go. She'll probably come back again to try to punish me, and don't you even think about interfering this time."

"Why not?" He spun around and gave me a stern look. I looked away from him as I spotted another cut on his chest and started scrubbing at it to avoid his gaze.

"This is my problem, not yours."

"I believe I don't need to ask permission to make this my problem as well."

"Why must you want to interfere? I may be significantly weaker than you, but I'm not some human. Besides, I deserve the punishment she gives me."

"No, you do not."

"Of course I do. I never live up to anyone's expectations of me. It's my own fault for not trying harder."

"Is this about that comment about your hair?"

"That doesn't bother me, she's always going on about it. If she doesn't like it, she shouldn't have made me a Demon. It's not like she isn't right, anyway. My hair color is absolutely horrific. It stands out too much."

"So you'd rather look like everyone else."

"Not really, no."

"Lady Shiyonin is quite an annoying creature. She appears to make a mockery of your hair because of her jealousy over it. Her appearance hardly differs from any usual Demon woman."

"It is impossible for her to be jealous of me."

"My Princess, I think the very gods would be jealous of your appearance."

Okay, face is definitely flushing bright red right now, but not for the reason you'd think. I hid my face while I continued my work, despite the fact the cut was completely clean and it was already sealing itself shut. Damn it, this bastard was going to make me do it. He's such a liar.

"Do not flatter me, Michaelis. I've said before, pointless flattery will get you nowhere with me." I turned away and stormed out of the bathroom, keeping my face towards the floor. Must he always do this?! I felt so confused. Here he was, always going on about how pretty I am when I'm not, always rushing to my aide when things turn sour because I'm weak, and now he's getting involved in my issues because I can't handle everything myself. Why does he always do this to me?!

I sat down on his bed and glared at the wall. Stupid Michaelis. Stupid Shiyonin. Stupid day. Stupid life.

He sat down next to me. "Look at me, My Princess."

"No."

"Please?"

"No, Michaelis."

His hand reached out and turned my face towards him. "Please, Sakura?"

At the mention of my first name, I finally looked up at him, ignoring the face of pity he gave me as he spotted the trickles of water running down my face.

"Stop looking at me like that, Sebastian. I do not need your pity. I know I'm not pretty, so stop saying I am."

He sighed. "You are not pretty, my dear, you are absolutely beautiful."

"Liar."

"But you are."

"Stop lying."

"I would never dare to lie to you."

"Cut it out, Sebastian. I'm ugly."

"Do not say that again."

"But I really am…mmmf!" I was cut off by Sebastian's sudden attack. I found myself pinned down on his bed by his body while both his hands held my face captive, and his velvety soft mouth covered mine in a soft kiss.

He quickly pulled away and gave me a stern look again. "I told you not to say it again."

"I'll say it as many times as it takes to get it through your thick head that-" I found myself trapped in another one of his kisses before I could say another word.

A soft rapping sound at the door made us both freeze. "Hey, Sebastian, Ciel's looking for you…" We found ourselves being ogled at by a blushing Finnian, who had just walked in on our awkward predicament.

I practically shoved the distracted Sebastian off of me and looked at Finnian, horrified. "I-It's not what it looks like, Finny!"

The poor boy seemed to be stunned into shock before he slowly closed the door. A moment later, we could hear him running away from the room.

I groaned. "_KU-SO_. Now they're going to gossip. Sebastian…" He grabbed my chin and gave me a tender peck on the lips, just to shut me up.

"Please do not insult yourself further. If the servants gossip, they will gossip. Do not worry over it. Now, I must start preparations for dinner." In a split second, he was gone, and then he returned, now donning his white dress shirt, vest, and tailcoat. It was back to butler mode once again.

"Would you like to assist me this evening for dinner? We seem to be running late on the schedule." He held his hand out to me, and I took it to pull myself up off of his bed. Then he escorted me out of his bedroom towards the kitchen.

"By the way…you should wear your hair like that more often. It suits you much better than appearing like a doll, and it'll be harder for anyone to grab your hair again. Besides, it pulls your hair out of that lovely face."

"Sebastian…"


	11. His Cat, Lost

Chapter 11: His Cat, Lost

The next morning, breakfast was quite…awkward. I restlessly sat behind my mistress's chair, running my hand through my side ponytail once in a while. Sebastian seemed to be calm, as usual. The only major difference in the room was the other servants. They were trying to be inconspicuous, but it seems Bard and Finny were chatting with each other while Mei-Rin seemed very downtrodden today, her head hung low. Poor thing. Her attraction to the dark butler was obvious to everyone in the household but Sebastian himself, and I felt like I'd stabbed her in the back, as her co-worker. Tanaka was as he usually is, of course.

Apparently, the gossiping boys weren't sneaky enough. Ciel turned his face to glare at the trio and slammed is fist on the table.

"For God's sake, what are you two going on about?!" Everybody but My Lady, Sebastian, Tanaka and I jumped in surprise at the young earl's sudden outburst. The two boys sweat-dropped while Mei-Rin hid behind Finny. I let out a quiet sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose between my index finger and thumb. _Teme, baka! You should have yelled at him last night to keep quiet before this became a problem…_

Nobody wanted to speak up, so surprisingly, Sebastian interrupted them while he poured Ciel more tea.

"I believe they are gossiping about Finnian catching Miss Yukimura in my quarters last night."

My face couldn't have been redder than now, definitely. If I could die from embarrassment, I probably would have at that very moment. Mei-Rin practically dashed out of the room in tears, now that she had heard about the incident from Sebastian's mouth himself, and all of the boy's jaws dropped, including Tanaka's. Ciel just stared at me, dumbfounded, while Lady Amaya choked on her morning tea.

The room was completely silent for a moment before Lady Amaya turned to me, giving me one of her classic death glares. Oh boy, I was in quite a bit of trouble for this, and it wasn't even my fault! Sebastian started it!

"IN HIS ROOM DOING WHAT?!"

"Nothing, it was completely innocent, it's all just a misunderstanding!"

Bard finally regained himself and scoffed at me. "Makin' out in a bed with a grown man ain't nothin'."

Scratch that earlier about my tomato face, my blush definitely got deeper. "It's not what you think, really!"

Ciel was still staring between us, totally lost for words, and Amaya had just face-palmed herself. Time to make my exit! I curtsied quickly to My Lady and everyone else.

"Please excuse me; I have quite a bit of cleaning to do today!" Before anyone could object, I'd already dashed out the door like a mad cow and went to find an escape in the garden. Surely, I wouldn't be bothered there, at least for a bit so I could collect myself to deal with this problem in an appropriate manner.

…..

I sat on one of the benches in the garden, admiring the rose bushes that surrounded me. This seemed like a perfectly good hiding place. Shadow was resting in my lap while I stroked her fur. She purred pleasantly while I sighed and brushed my bangs out of my face. _What in the hell am I going to do now…? Damn that Sebastian, embarrassing me like that! I ought to slap that look he had at breakfast right off of his face! That damn mischievous look he had is irritating! Some Demons do not understand how hard it is to maintain a decent reputation as a lady, not an uncouth Demoness flaunting her feathers like my mentor._

Shadow looked up at me with a smug grin, as if saying "I knew this would happen. Admit it; you have feelings for the butler."

"Don't give me that look, missy! Sure, Sebastian may be a creature of absolute physical perfection and very pleasant to be around, but that does not mean I'm ready to jump into his bed like some sort of concubine!" The black feline rolled her eyes and swished her tail, irritated at my remark.

I jumped in my seat when I heard the soothing sound of a violin echoing a lovely tune across the garden. Quite a feat when one such as me is surprised by something as trivial as someone playing something. It was no surprise that I spotted Sebastian sitting on another bench nearby, his thin fingers playing the instrument like a master. Is there ANYTHING this butler is not good at?

He probably wished to speak with me. My feline friend slid out of my lap lithely as I stood and strode over to him, my hands on my hips. This butler was going to get a stern talking to, whether he liked it or not.

"You have gotten me into quite a bit of trouble, Sebastian."

"Better to tell the truth than have everyone gossiping about it for days."

Now, Demons aren't known for their honesty, even ones with masters. We can tell half-truths, or not inform our contracted human of all the details, but we cannot outright lie except to one another or humans we are not contracted to. Still, he could have rephrased his words to refrain from scandalizing my name.

"Everyone now assumes that I'm some sort of whore and slept with you without being married first. I'm a bloody virgin, for the devil's sake! I would not participate in an activity like that, and most certainly not with YOU."

The damned butler gave me his classic sad face. "Do I not meet your expectations, My Princess?"

"Stop calling me that, you're in big trouble! One second, you are quite the gentleman, and the next, you turn around and become a total pervert! Please, PICK ONE! Your multiple personalities are giving me a whiplash." I stomped my foot and huffed at him, crossing my arms over my chest. Shadow was just watching the argument from a safe distance away with a smirk on her face.

"I apologize if I embarrassed you at breakfast this morning. The blush adorning your face is irresistible. I could not help myself."

A grumble escaped my lips as I turned on my heel and trudged away.

"Well next time, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!" As I was walking away, I just about bumped into My Lady and the master of the house. I wouldn't have cared, usually, but this time, I caught those two holding hands and laughing, though it seemed Lady Amaya was just dragging Ciel along in a child-like manner.

I raised an eyebrow at them both, causing the pair to immediately blush and drop their hands from one another. Sebastian even gave them a sly smirk. Seems like he knew something that I hadn't caught on to yet.

Either way, I wasn't in the mood. I just rolled my eyes and brushed past them. _And the servants judge ME. At least Sebastian and I are both available. Ciel has another woman of his age in his home and he's engaged!_

…..

For the rest of the day, the household either ignored or avoided me, especially Mei-Rin. She seemed to have disappeared completely. I hope I didn't make her too upset. Just goes to show you what happens when you give your heart to a Demon. Your first love is supposed to break it, anyway.

I was spending my day engrossed heavily in chores or research on Mr. Allen's whereabouts. The best way to distract yourself is to focus on something you are heavily irritated at. So far, everything was still quiet on his end. We hadn't heard a single whisper of any more murders, which led me to believe he had run off like a coward once again. By the end of the month, if there were still no more acts of murder committed that fit the serial killer slot, My Lady and I would have to leave the manor.

Apparently, the young earl was also interested in the case, as he spotted me scanning through the morning posts from the last week or so when he entered the library.

"What are you doing?"

"My Lady demanded I try to locate our target, so I'm starting with the last murder he committed. Unfortunately, we investigated his last murder. The trail has gone silent, young Lord Phantomhive."

"That will not stop me from getting to the bottom of this case. If there is a Demon involved, he must be stopped." He narrowed his blue eye at me as he walked over to the papers and browsed the front covers as well.

"If you wish to browse the papers, be my guest. I must see to a few more chores this evening." I sighed and stood, leaving the old newspapers on the table. "You may call upon me when you wish for them to be cleaned up, if you so desire me to do so."

"You may go." He sat himself comfortably in the chair I had been using while I left the room, the heels on my boots making loud thudding noises as I scurried out of the library to do some laundry for My Lady, as well as myself. _If Bone doesn't make a move soon, we'll lose the trail and they'll slip out of my claws. The sooner we finish this mission, the sooner I get my reward and I can leave England._

For some reason, my stomach felt like it was twisted up in knots when the thought occurred to me that we would leave the Phantomhive Manor soon if we didn't find our foe. It must have just been my stomach disagreeing with me for waiting so long to finish this contract. It had been a while since I'd eaten properly. If you've heard my story and thus far not realized that I devour souls, you must be an ignoramus.

Obviously, even if I wanted to grab a little snack to "hold me over" until the main course, My Lady would not permit me to do so. Her morals and all. Not that I wanted to attack someone anyway. If I needed a snack, I'd be devouring the soul of someone who deserved death, like a rapist, a murderer, so on and so forth. To be honest, I wasn't ready to steal My Lady's soul this soon, but I was getting quite hungry.

I shook those thoughts from my head and re-focused on my mission. Depressing thoughts and my insatiable, monstrous, and in a way, cannibal-like appetite would have to wait. Tonight, when all of the Phantomhive Manor was asleep, I would scour the city in search of this bastard. It was high time I dragged the pig in for the slaughter.

…..

The brilliant moonlight was shining her delicate rays of darkness across the rooftops of the city of London. I was comfortably seated on one of these house hats. So far, absolutely nothing. I was growing bored of sitting here with nothing to do.

Somewhere, a violin started playing again out of nowhere, a sad tune that I had never heard before, but it was still quite beautiful. It even sounded a bit familiar. Curious, I started singing along to the sound of whoever was playing that violin in the distance. Of course, I was singing along with my own song.

Fū ni jiyū ni odoru,

Watashi no hanabira ga yūrei no yōna yūga ni ochiru.

Watashi ni anata no kurai komori-uta o utau,

Anata no hōyō de watashi o hoji shimasu.

Toki ni watashitachi no sekai no fēdo

Matawa hoka no subete wa kono akumu no yōna gēmu de ushinawareta...

Watashi wa, anata no kuroi namida o kawakashimasu,

Anata no itami wa,-en no naka de kieru.

It felt like this lovely tune matched quite nicely with the little song I came up with. How odd. Despite my curiosity at the performer of this song, I stayed put. I had a job to do, and my curiosity would have to wait. Besides, usually that damned thing usually got me into trouble. I continued to listen to the song and sung along with it quietly. It was quite a peaceful moment indeed.

But, the peace was short-lived as I felt a thick blade embed itself into the back of my left shoulder, my dark crimson blood spilling down my lacy dress and onto the shingles of the roof I was sitting on. I jumped to my feet and spun around, only to face the Demon I was looking for. I'd been distracted enough not to hear one of his weapons whistling through the air before it was too late.

"Nice to see you again, beautiful." Mr. Bone had the second blade in his hand, ready to strike me down while I was surprised, injured in one shoulder, my pet was at home holding down the fort, and I was standing on dangerous terrain to fight on. What I wouldn't give for a pair of wings instead of the intuition of a cat.

Great. This was just a wonderful end to an already exhausting day. I doubt this was going to get any worse. Well, actually, it did when I felt thunder crackle in the sky. Going to rain soon, too? Just brilliant. I hate the rain! Oh, how I just love fate and how it likes to kick me in the ass, just when I'm about to relax and enjoy life for once.


	12. His Cat, Gone

Chapter 12: His Cat, Gone

Rain was pouncing on my back, but I was more focused on James. He was coming at me for another attack, but in my weakened state, he got me. I was already covered in slashes and cuts, but now his cleaver had just hacked off one of my arms at the elbow. Blood dribbled from the missing limb, but I ignored the pain shooting up my arm. Damn it all to hell, now I only have one arm left to fight with. It will take a few hours for my other one to regenerate.

"Give up; you're no match for me alone!"

"As a Saito maid, I simply cannot do that." I will never use those two words in the same sentence. That phrase is not in my vocabulary.

I managed another good slice in, but with one limb missing, this was getting difficult. It would have been a smarter idea to retreat, so I could live to fight another day. I took a few steps back, ready to bolt out of here, but a silver feather now sticking out of my stomach was preventing me from moving a single step more.

Seems that my own mentor has betrayed me.

Her laughter echoed in my ear as James approached with his cleaver and Shiyonin withdrew her weapon, only to toss me to the ground like I was a doll. As I turned behind me to glare at her, I noticed Mr. Allen had also joined the party. I'm outnumbered, and outmatched, but this could still work in my favor. The two were so damned cocky about the whole situation; I might as well knock them down a few notches.

My mentor moved to Mr. Bone's side, flirtatiously wrapping her arms around his neck. "Oh, you poor dear. Look at the mess you've made of yourself. Pathetic excuse for a Demon."

I coughed a bit, blood dribbling from the corner of my mouth. "Seems that you have me at a remarkably-sized disadvantage…but unfortunately for you, you idiots underestimated me!" Mr. Allen was still behind me, standing there like an idiot and smirking, so I took the liberty of throwing my knife at him. It embedded itself in his forehead and the fool dropped to the ground, dead instantly. My contract was complete. If I was going to die today, I had to do at least this much for My Lady.

Both seemed shocked that I had so boldly just killed off Mr. Bone's contract. He soon changed that mood to utter anger as he gripped his cleavers tightly. "You…I'll make sure you suffer for that!" Oh joy, this is going to be oodles of fun. Knowing the sick man that Mr. Bone worked for previously, this will be quite painful indeed.

…..

I shouldn't have let her go out alone. I knew something was wrong the moment Lady Amaya woke from her slumber in the middle of the night, sensing that something was amiss with her Demon. Now my lovely Princess is in trouble again. My brand new tailcoat is now ruined from this dreaded rain, on a side note.

Reaching the scene in less than ten minutes, I was quite…unsettled…with what I was seeing. I completely froze at the shock. I recognized the dead human among them as Mr. Marcus Allen, the man that Sakura and Lady Amaya were constantly accusing of the recent string of murders. The Demoness was Sakura's mentor, but the male was someone I had never crossed paths with. So, they were right. Mr. Allen was the perpetrator, with this man as his contracted Demon. The two must have conspired to attack Sakura, which clearly they did.

The beautiful young lady I had come to know and adore was lying on the rooftop, lying in a rather large pool of her own Demon blood. Not only was she wounded from head to foot, one of her arms and both of her legs had been removed, clearly by the large cleaver the man was carrying. He'd been in the process of removing her Faustus Marked arm when I arrived. To my dismay, she was hardly breathing at all.

Shiyonin glared at me as I approached and pulled silverware from my tailcoat pocket. I would not let either of them get away with this. They hurt something quite precious to me, and they would pay in full, with their blood.

"I suggest you leave, Mr. Michaelis. I wouldn't want to hurt that pretty face of yours." Despite her confident talk, I knew she was practically terrified at the thought of facing me in combat again. Fear was potent in the air around her like a heavy-scented perfume.

"My dear lady, I have a policy against harming women, but in such a case as this, I shall make an exception. Consider it ample compensation for the pain you are causing to your own pupil." Her hand lashed out as she threw her fancy feather-shaped throwing knives my way, but a wave of the hand and they were knocked out of the air by my silverware. I stepped closer while she continued to step back. Then, her gaze turned to the man.

"Mr. Bone, I believe you can handle him from here? My business is concluded with you." She rapidly escaped through one of her little portals like a coward, while the blood-soaked gentleman turned to me.

"Your little friend has cost me my contract. If you get in my way, I will not hesitate to end you."

"Such confidence from such a low-class Demon. Are you sure you wish to challenge me?"

His answer was clear when he charged at me with that crude weapon. I couldn't hold back a sigh as I swiftly moved out of the way. I'm not even going to break a sweat with this one. How my dear Sakura lost to this weakling, I do not understand. Of course it's obvious that he used this underhanded trick of outnumbering her to win.

"You are honestly not what I expected, after seeing your handiwork with your victims."

"What a wonderful compliment. You are quite the gentleman. Tell me, may I know the name of the next victim on my list?"

"Sadly, your list will not be acquiring any new names, but as a gentleman and the head butler of the Phantomhive estate, I must apologize for not introducing myself. I am Sebastian Michaelis. I urge you to remember my name, for it shall be the last words on your lips as I end you." In a surprise attack, I lunged right for the opposing Demon as I transformed into my true form. I should not even bother to rip him apart in this repulsive form, but I believe this will be sufficient enough punishment for practically torturing Miss Yukimura.

In only a matter of five seconds, Mr. Bone was nothing but a pile of blood at my feet. Now, with the opposing Demons out of the way, I could see to the injured Demoness, who still had not moved from her spot on the roof. It was taking quite a bit of time for her to recover.

"My Princess, it is time to arise." I kneeled at her side and brushed a lock of her hair from her face, causing her eyelids to flutter open. For her to be sleeping, she must be in worse condition than I thought.

"S-Sebastian…My…My Lady…" Her voice was very quiet, and she sounded weary, but she still reached up and grabbed one of my hands.

"Lady Amaya is at home, and she is well. Please, only worry about yourself…" Her behavior was starting to worry me. She should have immediately started regenerating, but the process had stopped for some reason…did Shiyonin cause this, like she caused her paralysis last time the pair fought?

"Take…take care of her…tell her…it's done…the contract…it's over…" What? Her contract was finished…? Then the target…was Mr. Allen? And why was she talking to me like this?

"You may tell her yourself when we return to the manor…" I'm usually not one to panic, but this was starting to make me rather worried.

"Can't…this is goodbye, Sebastian…" She smiled at me with one of her beautiful smiles, but it…it was so…sad. Can we even feel such an emotion…? How can she smile in the face of her own death?

"You're not going to die, Sakura…you can't possibly have been killed by them…" Something cold is running down my face…what? I can't….I can't be crying…I never cry…I have to stop; it's making her cry too…

"Promise me…you'll take care of Shadow…"

"Of course I will…" Why am I making a promise like this? She has no need to worry about the cat; she can come home and care for Shadow herself…

"We'll…meet again soon, Sebastian…I promise…" Then, she just stopped moving. Just like that. She has to be pulling a joke on me. She's obviously kidding. Must be getting back at me for embarrassing her in front of the entire household…isn't she? Come on, just wake up and tell me that it's all a lie…

But…her hand…it's already grown cold…

…..

"Ah, what are you still doing here, Michaelis? Run along now, I have work to do." I turned to glare at William T. Spears, the most…well, second most annoying grim reaper in England. He must be here for Mr. Allen's soul.

"I'm quite surprised you didn't just take this soul for yourself. You must be quite hungry." I ignored him and stared at the deathly pale face of my beloved princess. I must have been here for far too long. Why did it…why did it have to end this way?

"You can't stare at that corpse forever. It's that Demon woman from before, am I right? It's just going to disappear in a few hours when she moves into reincarnation again…" I paused again and looked up at him as if he'd just announced the apocalypse coming.

Of course, I had all but forgotten. Not many people know, but when Demons die, we do not actually die. We are born again as brand new Demons. (With the exception of being killed by a holy being. We can't reincarnate if we are killed by one of them.) She would not remember me immediately, perhaps for a long time, but I can assure you, she will be the same Demon that died here on this very night. And I wasn't bothered with waiting for her to return…not at all. I made her wait for her rescue, now it is my turn to wait.

I should have told her everything before she died…how much she actually meant to me. I suppose it will have to wait until she returns. Until then, I must go back to the manor. The household, especially Lady Amaya and Shadow, must be informed of what happened on this night.


	13. Author's Note

Author's Note:

Hey guys!

I hope you liked that surprise ending :D Yeah, I know this fanfiction was a bit short, but it is going to lead up to a better one. You probably guessed it by now, but yes, I'm making a sequel, and I'm going to make it longer this time. If you liked this one, despite its ridiculous shortness, stick around, I'll be starting it very soon.

Like I usually do, I'll probably read over this fanfiction and make minor edits, maybe adding more detail here and there, so if you feel like coming back, reading it again, and notice a slight change or two, don't freak out. I'm just OCD that way.

Excited to see what Sakura's reincarnation will be like? So is Sebastian! I hope you readers also enjoyed his little "human" moment just now.

So, yes, feel free to review, or drop a message, you know the drill. I LOVE hearing from you guys, seriously, it makes me want to write more when I notice people are actually reading my stuff, even if I'm not that good.

I'm eager to see how the sequel to this will turn out. Stay tuned everybody! Sakura will be back in action before you know it!

See you soon!

Rose-chan


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